Chapter 2: Hurt and Comfort
TWBH
64/100
I stumble backwards, falling on my back. The metal feels cold as my hands scramble to push me backwards, towards the far end of the cell - towards Nowi. She looks alarmed, sitting with her knees pressed together. But it's not because of me.
The doors are now open, allowing daylight to enter the cell, along with a man clad in flaky leather armor. He has a sword on his waist - a very odd thing to see. The man is holding a tray topped with four bowls. He squints his eyes shut as the thin sheets of steam waft upward. I would deny it, but the smell tickles my empty stomach.
Food. Nice. I want to think that my captors won't feed us - being barbaric enough to cut off Lorna's leg like that. Instead, I find my expectations dashed. I mean, what can I expect? I don't even know where or when I am. I have to gather information. The static hums in approval. I'm not sure if I'm going crazy.
I can't resist. I keep a watchful eye on the sword on his person. Who knows. He might decide to cut off my leg if he discovers what I've tried to do a few seconds ago. That would be an impediment to my goal of surviving. Just surviving. There's a reason why my alignment in traditional RPGs is Neutral Evil. I'm used to surviving by myself, and very often - only myself. But if this is indeed just a dream, then I'd still be dead.
A comforting thought. I shut it out, choosing to focus on the situation unfolding before my eyes.
"Here's your food, trash."
The man holding the tray drops it a scarce distance away from my shabby leather boots - a nice touch for my fantasy dream. Hey, my outfit's received a makeover too. I seem to be wearing warm brown robes and black trousers. Nothing to write home about. But it's certainly better than the poor excuse for clothes that Nowi is wearing.
How does she even survive in this cold temperature, with only strips of what appears to be scales protecting her body?
The thin liquid sloshes in the bowl, spilling a few bits of ground meat and soup on the wooden tray. The man with yellow teeth lunges for a bowl of soup. A boot lashes out - not mine - and smashes into his gaunt face. The man with yellow teeth growls as he crashes into the bars. His black eyes could have melted the man who delivered our food.
The man with the sword smiles menacingly, revealing broken teeth. Dental hygiene must be terrible in this place. I stay still, propping my back against the bars. They dig painfully into through my robes and into my spine.
"Hehe, you haven't forgotten about your manners, have you?" the swordsman says.
Nowi winces, purple eyes roving over the downed man's form. "We haven't, Mister Grock. Thank you so much for the food."
The swordsman - Mister Grock, chuckles slowly. "It seems you have."
He approaches Nowi. The little girl shivers, the hairs on her forearms stiffening as if she's a spooked cat. Okay. So now you feel the cold?
Grock's filthy hand reaches out and tugs on Nowi's ear, lifting her from the floor. She screams in protest. My three other cellmates looks away, their cracked lips slanting upwards. I watch, silent, as a thirty-something grizzled swordsman manhandles a child that looks barely old enough to be in her mid-teens. Peachy. Props to me for being a true knight in shining armor.
"Remember the deal, slut?" Grock says. "You're coming to boss man and doing that thing with your tongue. Don't worry - you're soup's with him."
He chuckles lowly - the kind of laughter that a stereotypical bandit in an RPG would have. Geez, this too detailed to be a simple daydream brought on by my near-death imagination.
Nowi's crinkles her eyebrows in an emotion that I know to be disgust. She glares at the man, but doesn't take action to remove the grip on her ear. I glance at the sword on the man's waist. He has his back to me. Nowi takes one look at me, eyes wide, and shakes her head very slowly. The swordsman takes that as a sign of struggle, and slaps her cheek with his free hand. The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoes through the silent cage.
Nowi whimpers quietly, grainy tears forming on the corner of her eyes. Her eyes scamper from me and towards the sword. Then back again. The sword, huh?
If I stand up, raise my hands a few inches, then I could take it. Can I kill him? Maybe - we have the same lanky build, even if he's much more muscular than I am. The problem with that is I'm now sure that Victor and Vincent's group is one made up of bandits. I don't know - maybe I play too much RPG. But I'm also sure that I'd die if I so much as steal a sword and kill one of them. It's better to wait and see. Grock may be hitting Nowi, but at least he's not maiming her. I don't think this boss is going to kill her too. Based on their interaction, this deal of theirs has been going on for a long time.
A few seconds pass. I remove my eyes from the sword and instead look at the door to the outside. Flakes of white flutter into the cage, coating the floor with a wet sheen. The temperature drops as a cold wind blows. It's snowing. Wherever I am right now, it's snowing. Can I make a run for it? The idea lingers in my mind for a moment, before I crush it ruthlessly. I'd be dead the moment I step out of the cage. Someone must be watching it. Worse, I could end up like Lorna. Then I won't have any chance to escape at all.
"It's a long trip to Plegia," Grock says. "Better hurry up, slut."
Grock drags Nowi towards the door. She looks at me, something that I know to be relief in her purple eyes. Shakily, the girl shambles down a ramp. Her firsts are clenched around the hem of her cape. It must have been the change in the lighting, but when Nowi comes out of the cage, I manage to see deep stains of white on her pinkish cape.
So that's what the trick with her tongue probably is.
- Why doesn't she fight back?
My brain decides to ask a stupid question. Naturally, it doesn't get an answer. The static hums in disapproval as the door shuts with a dull bang. Yeah, I know - you disapprove of me being a coward and not helping that girl. I get it. But you're not the one weaponless in the middle of bandit encampment now, are you?
I glance at the bowls of soup - not one of the three is in any mood to eat after that display. The passed-out man hasn't even woken up. I'm starting to suspect that he's probably dead already. The middle-aged woman stares darkly at the closed door, even as the man with yellow teeth tries to offer her a single bowl. She better eat it soon - the cold snuffs out whatever heat is in this place quickly.
"Lorna, 'ya really should get something to eat," he says. "Leg's looking green. If you don't eat, 'ya might not survive the morning."
I take a single bowl of soup and guzzle it down into my stomach. It tastes like herbs and dried meat. It's better than nothing. I need whatever sustenance I can get to come up with a plan to escape. The static hums again. This time, the hum is quick, fleeting. I need to hurry up.
Lorna blinks, tearing her eyes away from the closed door. "Give it to Derek instead."
The man with yellow teeth sighs and gestures for Lorna to tilt her body. She does, and allows him to put the rim of the soup bowl on the child's - on Derek's lips. The liquid splashes around the wooden bowl for a moment, before Derek sucks greedily on it. The scene reminds me of something that I've seen in an opera once.
I turn away and start counting the notches on the roof.
TWBH
5/100
When Nowi comes back, she looks disheveled, as if she has just spent hours playing inside a barn. It has been hours since she left. Thin, brownish strands of hay stick out from her hair - a bird nest painted with transparent lines that are barely visible in the dark. She scowls at me, and tries her best to pat down her hair. She doesn't succeed much, but she does manage to remove the hay stuck in her hair.
I walk towards her position - that one corner of the cage, and raise my hands to show that I mean no harm. Nowi glances at my hands, and bobs her head twice. Does that mean that it's safe to approach her? She won't scream or do something that might wake up the others?
"Hey...Err, Nowi," I say. "Have you..."
She quirks an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.
Brilliant.
"Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are creepy?" says Nowi, "like, they're really really deep like the ocean! You do know that your eyes are blue, right? But not just any kind of blue - it's the same blue as the dark Valmese sea!"
I'm not quite sure how to react to that. Maybe fate is taking pity on me and has decided to swoop in and save me from my kindergarten social skills. Still, something in that statement stirs long-buried memories in my mind. Valmese - where have I heard that one before? It's a sea, according to Nowi. But there's no such sea called... Valm in the world, is there?
I'm not a geographer, so I can't be sure. It's shameful to admit - but I probably know more about the world of Azeroth than I know planet Earth.
She's up near my face, waving two hands in front of it. "Hellooooo! Is Syren home?"
I snap out of my thoughts, looking at Nowi's purple eyes. "Yes, yes of course!"
She grins. "Of course you know that your eyes are creepy or of course Syren is home?"
The silence lingers for a few seconds. She's expecting an answer. You don't say.
"Yes. I've been told many times before that my eyes are darker than the average person's," I say. "And yes - I'm listening to you, Nowi."
Nowi stops waving her hands, and raises her chin. "That's good! I'd hate it if you weren't listening. Plenty of people think that I'm just a kid and tell me to go away and play with my toys. I mean, don't they know that I'm a one thousand-year old dragon - and I can eat them if I want?"
Come again? I seriously need to tell her that making up things is not good. My guild and I have gotten in trouble in the past because some noob spread rumors about a legendary treasure. Turns out, the legendary treasure is nothing but a glitched item that got a patch the next day.
"I'm sorry, Nowi," I say. "I know it's been hard being captured by these bandits and all -"
And being forced to do sexual intercourse against your will, which I've done nothing about -
"But it's not a good idea to live in fantasy land, I've been there-"
Nowi sniffles. I stumble upon my words. Errr... What do I do now?
The static hums in amusement. Instinctively, I know that its something about my luck being the worst in the universe. I can almost hear a skeleton laughing in the background - muttering stuff about this being the "bone-dry easiest roll". Hey, I'm not Nowi - the kid who thinks she's a dragon. I may have imagined myself as The Gamer in my weeb days, but I'm NOT a weeb anymore.
Shrugging - what could go wrong - I try to pat her head. It doesn't work as she slaps my hand before it reaches her hair. Nowi turns away. Even with my dumb social niceties, I know when I'm being ignored.
It's official. I'm bad with children. It's a good thing that I won't ever find a wife and reproduce, right? I take pity on my hypothetical children if I do.
TWBH
72/100
The cage bounces as it hits another bump on the road.
"C'mon Jill," the man with yellow teeth says. "Just give me the alcohol. Lorna over 'ere needs it."
The man that I assumed dead a few hours ago is now up and about . He's pacing - what's miraculous about this is that he manages to maintain his balance even as the cage jumps upward ever so slightly. I'm seated on the corner opposite to Nowi, not being ecstatic about having another conversation with her. Maybe I can try again the next century or so. When I develop some social skills.
Lorna speaks ups from her spot at the center of the cage. "Leave him alone, Jack. He doesn't want to - he doesn't. We're... all going to die anyway."
"Don't say that!"
The man that Jack and Lorna are speaking to - Jill - is somehow more disheveled than Nowi. His ratty brown cloak is a puzzle made of stitches, and his black facial hair is growing all over his face - a bad imitation of a lion's mane. Surprisingly, his head is bald, and it shines like a beacon in the dark. The bandits haven't bothered to remove the tarp covering the cage.
Outside, I can hear the cacophony of wheels and horses - there are other cages here. More than a dozen, judging from the intensity of the sound. It makes me wonder how an operation like this could go unnoticed. Doesn't this place have any police?
Jack shakes his head and turns to look at me, yellow teeth and all. "Hey, kid. What's your story?"
Curiously, Nowi shifts her sitting stance, angling her body so that her ears face towards us. How do I play this? Dozens of possibilities run through my head, but the one that minimizes the risks and makes the most sense is -
"I... I don't know."
Jack's eyes narrow.
"To be honest, I don't remember much," I say. "I don't seem to remember anything before I was taken by these bandits. Maybe they hit my head a bit too hard."
Kudos to me. If there is a Lying skill, and life is a video game, then I'm sure I'd have it in a rank that even Kirito, the Jesus-kun himself, would be envious of. Nowi's purple eyes linger on me for a few moments. I meet them head on. Dissatisfied with something, she averts them, going back to staring at the roof. It seems to be her favorite past time at this point.
"'Ya mean to tell us that 'ya forgot everything except your name?" Jack says. "Pegasus dung. First a manakete, and now an amnesiac. How do bandits find these queer folks?"
I nod... Wait what?
"A manakete?" I say, wrapping my tongue around the somehow familiar word. "What's that?"
Jack throws a finger at Nowi. "The child who's not a child. She may look harmless, but she can turn into one of those winged beasts and eat you alive. They be dragonfolk."
He continues to spout more nonsense. I mean, dragons? I'm starting to think that this is a fevered dream and I'm dying under a hydroplaned car somewhere. Not a comforting thought. But, it's either that - or dragons. Game of Thrones hasn't prepared me enough for this.
"In fact, I'm starting to wonder why she doesn't," says Jack, "I'm sure she be hungry from only having broth for the past few days. Miss having human meat, dragon?"
Nowi glares at Jack, then she grumbles and glances away. "I told you, you big meanie! I don't eat humans. Some dragons might, but I swear I'm vegetarian. At least, vegetarian by manakete standards. And, I couldn't eat you even if I wanted to!"
"Errr... If I may," I interrupt. "Nowi seems to have a hyperactive imagination, Jack."
His curly eyes snap towards me.
"But isn't it a bit too much to indulge her like this?" I say. "I mean, ostracizing her just to rope everyone into this make-believe fantasy about dragons -"
"Ha!" Jack says. "If only that be the case. You need proof, Syren? Look at her ears. Tell me that there's something human about those."
Alright, I'll take one look at Nowi's ears, find them to be perfectly normal, and rub it in Jack's face -
Oh. Oh.
I stop to stare, much to my embarrassment. Nowi's ears just look so fascinating and, dare I say it, cute.
Her ears are thin, long and pointed. They resemble elf ears from some RPGs that I've played. I don't know how I've never noticed those before, not even when Grock grabbed Nowi by those very same ears. I guess fine details are still my weak-points. This changes everything - and this experience, whatever it is, might not just be a dream after all. It's far too detailed to be just something that my mind has cooked up in its death throes.
Nowi blushes a dark red. By that, I mean a full on blush - ears and all.
"Stop that!" Nowi says. "Or I'll turn into a dragon and roast you!"
I look at Jack. He smirks, eyes flickering in victory.
"And what's so bad about that?" I say. "It's not like she's doing anything particularly disruptive. So what if she's a dragon - or a manakete?"
Jack snarls - a small curving of his thin lips. "You be damned giving them murderers a chance, Syren."
I raise an eyebrow. "Murderers? That seems excessive."
Glancing at Nowi, I say: "You haven't killed anyone, have you?"
The car - no, the cage shakes as it encounters a particularly nasty bump. I wait as Nowi seems to carefully consider her words. Either that, or she's become mute all of a sudden. I hope it's the former.
"I-" Nowi says. "I can't say. I mean, I've lived for so long that everything just seems to blur together..."
Jack raises a fist in triumph. "See? She can't be trusted. Any moment now, she'l get hungry and decide to have a quick snack. And let me tell you Syren: it be bloody."
The silence lingers for a moment too long. Jack is right. I can't really trust Nowi - I don't know her well enough aside from her name and her status as a manakete. In her corner of the cage, Nowi sits alone. She stares at the roof blankly, or is she thinking about transforming and taking to the skies?
The static hums. I know. This might be the opportunity that I've been waiting for.
TWBH
Hey guys and gals. Eren here with the latest chapter to The Ways Back Home. The numbers underneath my linebreaks are the main rolls that cause the events to turn out the way they do. It's a good thing that Syren rolled high enough in the first scene, or else he'd be a tad crippled right now. It's a damn shame that he missed the second roll though - he could have walked away with a C-rank support with Nowi, and completely change the outcome of the third scene. He does manage to roll a high enough number in the third scene though, so he gets the neutral "you still have a chance with her before the plot moves forward" version of said scene.
For those wondering why Syren seems observant in some instances and not in others, the reason for that is he's weak with finer slash less familiar details. Heck, he missed Nowi's ears despite them being very conspicuous. He does make up for his by being able to assess what is wrong and how to correct it - an advantage of playing too much strategy mmorpgs. Also, Syren only notices things on the surface right now, he notices very little of what's going on inside of people. Emotional-incompetency. Love that flaw. It also allows me to have a relatively impartial and amoral narrator in very tense situations like this. Even though he is a bit too dumb to accurately read between the lines - so it's up to the readers to do it for him.
The most difficult thing that I had to keep in mind while writing this chapter is that Syren is still not fully convinced, in the early scenes, that this is reality, and not just a dream. Hope I did alright. Also - Nowi's character. I had a hard time keeping her in character because I find relating to 1000-year old entities that's seen and experienced a lot of things difficult.
Please read and review? Tell me if you catch any typos or mistakes. Or just review to give me more DETERMINATION.
Eren out.
TWBH
Replies to reviews:
TheGiantRock:
Hey, thanks for dropping by, mate. Dark Awakening was one of the inspirations for The Way Back Home. I'm trying to study how you paced Dark Awakening, since I do admit that I have a tendency to rush sometimes.
Since I like being upfront to my readers...
Anyways, Sans will have a supporting role in The Way Back Home - something that's already evident in this chapter, and a major role in The End Of All Things - an unpublished novelette that I'm sitting on so as to not spoil my other stories. He also makes appearances in the other entries in the Great Outrealms Continuity, since he's kinda an important figure.
But, if you're looking for a story where the gamer mechanics affects only the MC, then this is not for you? Since gamer mechanics affects everyone in the GO Continuity, but only the SOULs of a rare few have the necessary characteristics to be able to interact with the system and play the game, so to speak. That's the entire niche of the organization in the summary - it's basically made up of Einherjars (basically a form of false Counter Guardians in Fate stay/night's terms) and Watchers (the guys and girls that have the SOUL necessary to interact with the system, technically still Einherjar but contracted alive, not placed in a card due to their legend). There are only a few OC's in this book though, the main focus will still be on Syren and the main plot with the Shepherds - this is a Fire Emblem fanfic. His more adventurous exploits as a Watcher take place during the two-year timeskip, and beyond Endgame: Grima.
If you're interested, keep reading. If not - well, good luck with Dark Awakening. I'm looking forward to the next chapter. smiles
