Chapter Three: A Hero's Duo
"Your majesty!" Winston exclaims in surprise as he opens the door. "I'm afraid, Master Reaver is currently…. Unavailable."
"I'm sorry, Winston but this is urgent." She said as she charges past the straight laced butler.
She goes to his bed chambers just to be greeted with the image of a handful of (heavy) sleeping maids and a naked Reaver.
"Oh Avo. I'm sorry…" She said shielding her eyes.
"Can I help you with something or did you want to join?" Reaver asked grumpily as he rolls over in his bed.
"I actually need to discuss with you something important. So if you could quickly get dressed, that'd be appreciated." She said as she closes the door.
Reaver feels uncharacteristically ashamed of himself and kicks out all the maids, whether they were partially clothed or not at all as he puts his clothes on.
"So what is so urgent that you disturbed my slumber?" He asked.
"There are a horde of hollow men in Mourningwood keeping grieving families from visiting their loved ones."
"And that concerns me because….?" Reaver asked.
"I would like your assistance for this quest. Or should I say, I would like the hero of skill's assistance." She said. "I need an expert marksman for cover since I have been appointed to collect an item from one of the graves as well."
Reaver is insistent that he doesn't want to go but she strokes his ego (metaphorically) until he eventually agrees to accompany her.
They travel by carriage to the edge of Mourningwood and go the rest of the way on foot for the safety of the carriage driver (much to Reaver's annoyance.) He spends the journey constantly moaning about Mourningwood's stench and how humid the air is.
"I am not wearing the right clothes for this. Not that I have any attire to go trouncing in the swamp…" He complained. "Are we there yet?"
"Yes, we are." She said as she sees a glimpse of some headstones.
'Thank Avo.' She thought. She was a second away from making Reaver part of the cemetery.
The cemetery was suspiciously quiet and empty after getting reports of hollow men taking over the place.
"This has been a waste of my time." Reaver complained.
"Reaver, just count your blessings that this is relatively easy for you." She said. She investigated the different headstones.
"Why are you looking at the headstones?" Reaver asked.
"I'm looking for a specific headstone." She replied simply. "'A Spade buried by a Spade because of a Spade'" She read out.
'Could it….? No.' She thought. 'It's probably a coincidence,' as she started to dig.
As she shifted the dirt away, she sighed in relief as she began to see the edges of this mysterious item. When the mud had finally been casted away, she rubbed the sweat off her forehead and looked down at her requested item. She looked unimpressed at the important item she had to receive as she stared at the skin bound book, the Normanomicon.
She sighs in frustration as glimpses of Max and Sam came to mind and goes to get the book but a skeletal hand grabs the book first from the grave as another one grips her from behind.
She looks around and sees that they are suddenly surrounded by hollow men. Reaver merely tuts and smiles as he draws his gun and starts shooting. A rain of bone splinters and rags came down and she feels that she has been released. She panics knowing that she can't use an area spell in fear that she would harm Reaver but deducts to use time control. The scene slows down as she draws her pistol in hopes to clear the hollow men quick and easily but they start to move normally again. Having the advantage of a surprise attack, they knock her to the ground. She spots Reaver and her heart stops as she realises he is still affected by the time control spell. He is defenceless until the spell wears off. She quickly blasts a path through the hollow men to Reaver and shields him as she shoots as many oncoming enemies as possible, but struggles when there are too many. She clicks her gun and realises to her horror that her gun has ran out of bullets as a hollow man raised its rusty sword. She feels a bullet pass her face and collide with the hollow man's head knocking it back into the rest of the skeletal horde. Reaver had returned back to normal.
"My lady that was the worst idea you've ever come up with." Reaver said in disgrace as he shoots the hollow men back while she reloads. "You endangered my life…" he looks to her and smiles. "… But you did a good job protecting me."
"Did you just compliment me?" She asked as she aims at a hollow man.
She never gets her answer.
Reaver had a manic glint in his eyes as he shot down each hollow man and grinned in enjoyment as the hollow men were being vanquished by his bullets.
'At least he's enjoying himself.' The Queen thought.
She sees a certain movement from the corner of her eye and spots a lone hollow man running from the rest of the horde and deeper into the forest with the book still within its grasp.
"Reaver, the book!" She said as she gestured to the hollow man.
"Then what are we waiting for?!"
They give chase to catch the hollow man as they shoot down a path leaving a trail of dusty bones and rusted armour. The more they cut down though, the more seems to spring up and start following them. They turn to shoot back any particular fast hollow men and keep them at bay as they tried to close in on the lone hollow man.
"Surprisingly fast, the undead, aren't they?" Reaver said.
"Not like they have much weight on them to slow them down." She answered.
They watched as the lone hollow man starts running towards a house on a hill. As they entered the perimeters of the house, The Queen notices the lack of clunking made by the hollow men's cheap armour and quickly glances back to see that they had stopped outside the gates. If they could have expressions, she would have guessed that they were too afraid to go within the vicinity and she wonders whether she and Reaver should be afraid as well.
Author's Notes
Thank you to everyone who has been following A.L.Y. I hope you've enjoyed this week's chapters and are now looking forward to Chapter Four Tune in for the latest adventures of Reaver and The Queen of Albion.
All characters and location are owned by Lionhead Studios.
