Chapter Three: Blood and Silliness

"Commandant, wake up!"

Flynn woke with a jolt, and the subsequent stabs of pain this caused his injuries was enough to fully wake him up. "What's the situation?"

"Monsters approaching, sir," Sodia said, her sword drawn.

Flynn was on high-alert in seconds. He struggled upright and surveyed their position. He sat next to a tree with a wide strip of grass between him and the creek. Approaching them from the woods ahead was a pack of Cluckits. Flynn was relieved; these things looked like a chicken that had swallowed a balloon and hopped along on stick-like arms. He'd seen more threatening toddlers, and had every confidence Sodia could take care of them.

Sodia did not disappoint. She tackled the pack with ease, carefully blocking their clawed attacks and lightly stepping around to avoid letting any of them get behind her. Flynn smiled as he watched her fight, confident that he'd picked a competent knight to be his second.

One Cluckit broke off from the pack and looked to Flynn with a cocked head. Actually, it cocked its entire body because it didn't really have a distinct head. It hopped toward him, and Flynn reached for his sword. He'd always considered these things more of a nuisance than an actual monster, but they were suddenly a lot more daunting when you were stuck on the ground with a busted sword-hand.

"Get back!" He swung his sword at it with his left hand, hoping to frighten it off before it actually started attacking. The Cluckit was undeterred, and Flynn decided he didn't want to be sitting here at its level. He glanced up and saw a branch on the tree within his reach. He sheathed his sword and grabbed it, kicking off with his left leg and dragging himself to his feet. He gasped for breath when he made it, every muscle pounding, and leaned against the trunk for support. "I said get back!"

The Cluckit hopped backward as he whipped his sword out again. He'd been trying to actually slash it, but with his clumsy left hand he missed. He thrust at it a few more times, the persistent monster constantly evading his attacks. The bright red comb on its head wobbled back and forth and it kept opening its mouth to show off its sharp teeth.

In a quick movement, a tongue so long it must have been rolled up inside its entire body shot out. It smacked right into his injured hip, no doubt aiming for the blood on his ripped jacket. He grunted as it smacked the still-healing wound and the blow sent him off balance. He instinctively tried to catch himself with his right leg, and then shouted as he accidentally put all his weight on his broken leg. He toppled to the ground, which didn't do good things for his ribs or dozens of bruises, and dropped his sword.

The Cluckit leapt forward with what could only be called excitement. It jumped onto his chest, pressing painfully on his ribs. Flynn didn't bother trying to manipulate his sword at close range and shot his hands forward, grabbing it at an approximation of shoulders, and gritted his teeth as it pressed against his sprained wrist. Dammit, there was no way in hell he was going to get killed by a chicken balloon.

The monster hissed and struggled against him, its bulky tail smashing around in aggravation. So far it had avoided smacking against his leg, but Flynn didn't want to count in that lasting forever. The long tongue shot out again and slathered across Flynn's face.

"Ugh!" He turned his face away and tried to throw it off. His wrist pounded and threatened to give out on him at any second.

The monster went rigid, and Flynn turned his head to see Sodia standing over him with her sword in the Cluckit's back. Flynn sighed in relief as she tossed it aside and finished it off. The rest of the pack was already dead.

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked, sheathing her sword.

"The only serious injury was to my pride." He thanked the stars Yuri wasn't here to see this, or he'd never live it down that he'd nearly been bested by a Cluckit.

"I think you can be forgiven, sir," Sodia said with a smile. "How's your leg?"

It felt like a porcupine had crawled into his shin and was now thrashing around in a desperate attempt to escape. "Fine."

Sodia pulled him back onto the stretcher and Flynn took a sip of apple gel syrup. "Do you think you can hold one of them as I carry you? We can have fresh meat for dinner."

He nodded. "I can do that." Stupid little bastards. It would be quite satisfying to eat them after one of them tried to eat him.

With a Cluckit in one arm, Sodia picked him up and they started moving again. He was awake now and didn't feel like going back to sleep, especially in case they got attacked again. As they moved, Flynn looked at the dead monster in his arm and glared at it. They were so stupid looking, like someone had let a three-year-old child design monsters. People lived in terror of monsters, and this is what passed as a threat? Mostly, he was just sulking because he was mad the stupid thing had nearly gotten the better of him.

"Sodia… when you get back to Zaphias and you write a report about what happened in the woods… don't include this part."

Sodia glanced over her shoulder. "That would make my report incomplete, sir."

"Yes, well, you don't need to include every detail. The Council doesn't need to know what we had for breakfast, for example."

"Are you certain, sir? The people need to know that every monster can be lethal, even to the commandant."

"Sodia…"

"Reports are supposed to indicate any major injuries, and you seem to have suffered a severe blow to your pride."

Flynn craned his head back to look up and meet her eyes. Based on the smirk on her face, he realized she was teasing him. Disgruntled, he lowered his head and glowered at the trees.

Sodia laughed and looked ahead. "If it makes you feel any better, sir, I can say it was an eggbear."

Flynn didn't dignify this with a response. He supposed he should be thankful that Sodia and Yuri weren't on speaking terms, because Yuri was the last person he wanted knowing about this. He would end up going to his grave being teased about getting beaten by a Cluckit. Eager to change the subject to something less humiliating, he said, "You know, it occurs to me that you seem awfully comfortable in these woods, Sodia."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"I don't know anything about forests. I'm on edge around all this nature. I'm a city boy at heart, but you seem at ease."

"It's nothing terribly exciting, really. I spent a lot of time in the woods as a child, that's all."

"I see." Satisfied with this answer, Flynn settled in for a rest to let Sodia hike in peace. Then he thought about it more, and her answer didn't add up. "Actually, hold on. When did you spend time in the woods? You're a noble from Zaphias."

"I didn't always live in Zaphias. My father used to be the magistrate of a small town up north."

She shifted the weight of the stretcher, and Flynn felt a now-familiar stab of guilt that she was going through so much strain and effort to drag his useless ass along. "And your parents let you play in the woods? Even with monsters?"

"Actually, our town had a fairly unique arrangement. It was a farming community, and the barrier extended beyond the limits of civilization to protect the crops. Over the years, though, more and more people emigrated to the capital in hope of a better life, and many fields stood empty. Within a couple of generations, the forest spread and reclaimed the land, so a segment of the wood was actually within the barrier. My siblings and I spent most of our childhood running around through the trees. It's really amazing how quickly nature can retake settled land if you drop your guard."

A forest inside a barrier? Flynn would have loved to see that before the barriers disappeared. All the thrills of a wild forest with none of the threat from monsters. He imagined Sodia as a little girl, running freely through the trees, and felt a bit envious. When he was young, his playground had been the gutters and alleys of the lower quarter. They were constantly getting shooed away or forced to play in dirty, cramped hiding spots behind the main streets. The closest he and Yuri had had to wilderness were the dandelions that grew in the weed-infested patch of grass behind Hanks' house. Looking back, Flynn certainly wouldn't want his own children playing there, if he had any, because they could easily have been seriously hurt by the rotting wooden frame they called a castle and the rusty nails struggling to hold it together. What they wouldn't have given for a wild forest to call their kingdom…

"We lived there until I was about fifteen," Sodia said, jarring him out of his thoughts. "The barrier failed during the Great War and my family moved to Zaphias."

"You were fifteen during the Great War?"

"That's right, sir."

Flynn did some quick math. "Wait, but that means you're… twenty-five?" He twisted as much as he could to look around at her, though she was still staring ahead.

"I just turned twenty-six."

Flynn silently watched the trees slide by for a few seconds. He was still twenty-one for a few more months. He supposed it made sense that Sodia was older him, since she was his second in command and Flynn was uniquely young for his position, but he'd never really thought about it before. "I didn't know you were older than me."

She glanced back at him for a couple of seconds. "Is that a problem, sir?"

"No." He shook his head. "If I had problems being in command of people older than me I'd never get anywhere."

"True enough. As far as I know, all the senior officers are older than you. If it means anything, it doesn't bother me, either."

"That I'm younger?"

"Right. I trust you and your ideals. I think it just means we have a lot to look forward to as you grow even stronger with age."

He smiled. "Thank you, Sodia. Your support does actually mean a lot to me."

Sodia struggled to find words. "Oh, um… well, you've more than earned it, sir."

"I hope to continue to do so."

Sodia was eager to keep moving and cover as much ground as they could, so they didn't stop until the sun was so low in the sky they couldn't see it above the trees. The forest was shrouded in dark shadows, broken only by the soft beams of sunset that managed to cut through the dense forest. The cool air was a mix of insect whines and the last songs of birds heading for bed and the first chirps of bats waking up. Sodia pulled Flynn to a stump, half-rotting with sides covered in moss, and said, "Can you get the Cluckit ready to cook while I gather firewood?"

"Yes, ok." He was eager to do something to help after Sodia had done all the difficult work so far. She held out her knife, but they both realized the problem the instant Flynn reached for it and winced. "Actually…" He dropped his wrist and sighed through gritted teeth. "I can't."

"I'm sorry. I forgot." She sheathed her knife.

"I could try with my left hand," Flynn offered, desperate to do something useful.

"With all due respect, I really don't think that's a good idea, sir."

She was right, of course. He couldn't even manage hitting a large bulbous target with a sword, and he expected to be able to do precision knife work? Trying to use his left hand was like working while intoxicated. "Is there anything I can do?"

Sodia looked around the trees. They had taken a short detour away from the stream because the bank was covered in rocks that made dragging the stretcher difficult, but they could still hear it off to their left. All around them were trees and dense bushes. "Can you find enough rocks within grabbing distance to make a fire circle?"

"I can try."

"Alright, do that and I'll gather firewood."

She walked away and Flynn reached to grab the nearest rock. He could still hear Sodia tramping through the underbrush, but she was out of sight. The sun was going down and Flynn thought again of that strange shadow he'd seen the night before. He'd shaken it off this morning, but as night arrived once more he found himself feeling uneasy.

Up until recently, he hadn't known that Entelexeia existed. What other mysteries might the world be hiding in its dark and unexplored corners? More importantly, how many of them would he stand a chance against with a busted wrist and a broken leg? The urge to call out to Sodia rose in his throat, but he snuffed it down. The only monster nearby was a Cluckit, and it was already dead.

Twigs cracked behind him and he jerked around - ow - but only saw Sodia emerging from the trees with a pile of kindling. "How's the circle, sir?"

He gestured to a semi-circle of stone. "I can't reach any more rocks. I'm sorry."

"I'll finish it," she said, setting down the wood and kneeling on the other side of the circle. She easily grabbed stones from around the stump and placed them in a ring.

Flynn looked down at his hands in frustration. "It's odd, don't you think? They're identical, but one of them is blunt and clumsy. Why can't people move both their hands with the same ease?"

"I never really thought about it, sir." Sodia didn't even look up as she finished clearing the circle and setting up a teepee of kindling.

"Yuri can." Flynn thought enviously of the way Yuri seamlessly tossed his sword from one hand to the other, slashing at the enemy with whichever hand was convenient. How did he do that? Flynn couldn't even brush his teeth with his left hand.

"I think you'd be better off not comparing yourself to him," Sodia said with a barely masked scowl as she lit a small pile of shredded leaves with a match.

Flynn dropped his hands. "You know, you should give Yuri a chance. I think if you two got to know each other, you'd get along well."

"If you say so, sir."

Flynn had been in the Knights long enough to know the polite way to tell one's commander you thought they were an idiot. "We would most likely have all perished due to the Adephagos were it not for Yuri," he reminded her.

"I understand that, sir," Sodia said, carefully watching the growing fire. "But he's… well, it's possible to appreciate the things a person has done without liking them as a person."

Flynn frowned as he watched her face, which was concentrating on the fire. She seemed overly engrossed in watching the wood burn, and Flynn wondered if she was using it as an excuse to avoid showing any feelings on the Yuri matter. They had gotten off on the wrong foot right from the start, but ever since Yuri came back from Zaude, things had been downright icy between them. He had to wonder if they'd gotten into some huge argument when they met in Capua Torim before meeting him in Hypionia. He wouldn't put it past them; they were both so set in their ways, ways which were similar enough to bring them close but then different enough to grate against the other. They butted heads like identical poles of a magnet. "Fair enough."

The fire had caught on to the kindling, and Sodia finally looked up at him. "Forgive me if it's not my place to ask, sir, but… where did you even meet Yuri Lowell? You're such different people and it confuses me how you befriended that…" she carefully sought a word that wouldn't irritate Flynn, "rogue."

He shrugged, holding his hands up to soak in the warmth of the growing fire. The damp, decaying leaves mixed with chilly soil and bits of moisture seeped through the blanket of the stretcher. "It's no big story. I suppose we were more similar when we met, at the age when wanting to play the same games was a more important aspect of friendship than similar world views. We were good friends throughout childhood, but it wasn't really until my parents died that we became as close as we are now. Yuri was also an orphan, so with no one else to turn to, we stuck together." He pulled his right hand back, because the heat made his swollen wrist uncomfortable. He glanced up from the fire to see Sodia staring at him. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she said quickly. "I… didn't know you were an orphan. I had heard that your father died in the Knights but I just assumed your mother was still alive. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed."

"No, no, it's fine. I think assuming people's parents are alive is a much happier way of living than to assume they're not. Besides, it's not like I go around talking about it all the time. You couldn't have known." It occurred to him just how little he actually knew about her. He understood her personality and how she worked, but they had never really talked outside of work. Their personal lives were a mystery to each other.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did she… um, die?"

"She got sick." His throat tightened like it always did when he talked about this. He always thought he had moved on, and for the most part he had. She had died over ten years ago and it was hardly as if he burst into tears at the very mention of her. Still, when it came to pulling up the specific memories of her last couple of days and inevitably mulling over everything he might have done differently to help her, the pain whacked him over the head in a reminder.

He didn't want to go over the exact details, so he moved on. "My father had been killed a couple of years earlier, so when she died we lost the house. I was only ten so I could hardly pay the bills myself. I had no other family and nowhere to go, so I ended up on the street."

Flynn avoided looking at Sodia's face, because he knew it would be full of pity. He was hardly interested in telling her this to gain her sympathy; he already had her respect and that was all he could ever want from her. He didn't think of himself as particularly downtrodden and there were many people in the lower quarter who had it much worse off than he ever had. What he really wanted was for Sodia to understand Yuri. He didn't demand that she liked him, just that she could see the same thing Flynn saw in him, and understand why Yuri meant so much to him.

He smiled and said, "I don't think I would have survived a week if it weren't for Yuri. He'd been staying with us for the past year or so, and he'd drifted between other people's homes for most of his life, but he'd spent some time on the street before and he knew how to survive. He showed me where the best places to get free food were, where the warmest place to sleep was on the cold nights, and most of all he kept my spirits up. I was still reeling from losing my mother, but Yuri refused to let me wallow in that grief and showed me that my life wasn't over. If not for him, I might have died from exposure that first night."

He risked looking at Sodia. Sure enough, he spotted the pity. He was used to it by now, though. Lately, almost everyone he interacted with was a noble and whenever the topic of his background came up it was always met with either pity or disgust. Compared to the other option, pity wasn't so bad.

One thing did confuse him, though. When he first glanced up, he could have sworn he had caught the tail end of guilt on her face before it switched to pity. Why the subject of his history with Yuri would make Sodia feel guilty was a mystery to him, but he didn't feel like pursuing it this evening. Eager to move on from Sodia pitying him, he said, "Why don't we get that Cluckit ready to cook?"

"Right," Sodia said, quickly jumping up to grab it. She set the monster's body on the stump and kneeled over it with her knife. "Er… where do I start?"

Flynn stared at it. "Um…the meat part?"

"All of it is meat."

"The beak isn't."

"Alright, so we've ruled out the beak as a place to start eating, at least. Am I supposed to skin it first?"

"Probably. I don't want to eat feathers."

"How do I do that?"

"Don't ask me. You're the one who spent her childhood on the woods."

Sodia shot her head to him, her face a mix of frustration and fear. "Yes, but I've never skinned an animal before!"

"Well, neither have I! I told you, I'm a city kid. I didn't set foot outside Zaphias until I joined the Knights."

"Um…" Sodia stared at the Cluckit and then gingerly poked it with her knife as if it might explode.

Flynn scooted toward her as best he could. "There's probably a lot of meat in the big centre part. Try cutting it open."

"R-right…" Sodia gripped the feathers with on hand and pulled up to get a clear view of the skin, and then slid her knife into the abdomen. She made a quick slide to pull back the skin, exposing intestines below. She jerked back and let the skin flap drop with a gasp.

Flynn's stomach twisted and suddenly fresh meat sounded a lot less appetizing. "Oh dear."

"I was expecting to find meat."

With a grimace, Flynn peered around the monster. "But… how do we find the meat?"

"It's got to be under here somewhere." She took a deep breath, gripped her knife firmly and sliced the Cluckit open along its belly. Rather then exposing the meat, all she managed to accomplish was to cause internal organs to burst forth and splatter the white feathers with blood.

"Ack!" Flynn scrambled to crawl backward before the intestines falling from the corpse could land on his foot. It had not been his most manly scream. "Don't - don't do that!"

"I'm sorry! I thought if I ripped it open I'd get to the food!" She had an edge of panic in her voice as she stared at the increasingly horrific scene she'd created. "Why do they have so many organs? They're just balls with faces!"

Flynn had a sudden deep respect for butchers. Since living in the castle, meat was just something that appeared on his plate. He'd never put much consideration into the poor souls had to sort through internal organs to get it out. Just the smell made him want to throw up. He'd dealt with monsters and guts before - it was a side effect of being a solider - but he was used to encountering them in the heat of battle, not while he was calmly sitting next to them with his mind on dinner.

"What should I do!?"

She looked to him for guidance, but Flynn was still caught up in the horror of discovering what Cluckits looked like on the inside. "Why are you asking me!?"

"You're the commandant!"

Oh, right, it was his job to tell Sodia what to do. Still - "That doesn't make me a butcher!"

"Ok, ok…" she tried to calm down. "I think I see meat underneath all… this." She carefully moved in with her knife, her nose wrinkled and looking with her face turned away as much as she could while still looking. "If I cut the organs out, I should probably be able to - ah!"

"What was that?" He heard something liquid.

"I - I think I accidentally cut the bladder."

Liquid ran down the side of the trunk. Flynn's stomach heaved and his ribs clenched with pain. "Uh… I - I'm making an executive decision to abandon this plan. Let's eat drumsticks."

"That sounds like a good idea, sir," Sodia said weakly.

Meat from the legs proved to be significantly easier to obtain. In what seemed like no time, Sodia had dragged the nightmare-inducing corpse far away from their fire and tied the Cluckit's two massive thighs to sticks to roast over the fire. The pair of them sat silently, watching the meat cook.

"So…" Flynn said after a while, "a couple nobles have invited me to go on hunting trips. I'm starting think I made a good decision in passing."

"I just don't understand why it had so many organs," Sodia said distantly, staring into the fire like some shell-shocked veteran recalling the horrors of war. "All they do is hop around and eat things. Why does it need that many parts?"

"I'm certainly never going to look at a Cluckit the same way again."

"I propose a new tax break for butchers on the grounds that they face inhuman brutality and horror for the benefit of others."

"They should get a medal."

When the drumsticks were done cooking, Sodia handed one to Flynn. "Here you go, sir. The fruit of our labour."

"I don't know if you should sound so proud about this." He took a bite. It was bland and a bit overcooked, but alright. "I nearly got killed by it and then we both nearly lost our lunches trying to get meat from it."

"That may be, sir, but at the end of the day, we are eating and it is dead, and that means we won." She plopped back down across the fire and tore into her own drumstick.

Flynn snickered. "True. And it's not like we didn't gain anything from this. Look on the bright side: we are now far more educated than we ever wanted to be on Cluckit anatomy."

"We also learned several ways not to gut a Cluckit." Sodia joined him in snickering. After the stress of the last day and a half, they both needed a release.

Flynn swallowed heavily. The meat may not be the best, but it was was flavoured with victory. "So all in all, it could have gone a lot worse."

"Exactly." Sodia took another huge bite of hers, as if she was in an speed eating contest. "I also learned how to make the commandant scream like a little girl."

Flynn nearly choked on his drumstick as Sodia gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. "Oh gosh," she said with wide eyes. "Please forgive me, sir. I spoke without thinking."

Flynn shook his head, unable to speak through both laughing and trying to swallow. It wasn't that what she'd said was particularly funny, but that Sodia was the one who had said it. Hearing a simple jibe at his expense was so far from what he'd come to expect from her it had thrown him through a loop. When he finally forced the mouthful down, coughed slightly, took a drink Sodia's canteen, rubbed his eyes and then gasped for breath, he was able to say, "No, please, it's fine."

"It was an inappropriate remark to make to my superior officer."

Flynn gestured around the dark, silent trees that were their only company for hundreds of miles. "We're in the middle of nowhere, I'm on vacation, and I'm too sore to give much of a damn about anything. For all I care, you can just call me 'Flynn', if you want."

"I could never," she said quickly. "We may be far from society, but our ranks haven't changed."

Flynn had expected as much, but it was good to at least let her know that she could be casual if she wanted. It was important to maintain professionalism while on duty and especially around other knights they set examples for, but out here he didn't think it mattered. He was supposed to be on vacation, so as far as he was concerned, he was off-duty.

Half an hour later, Sodia had finished eating and got things set up for the night. She made Flynn promise to wake her up earlier than dawn so he could get some sleep as well, though he planned to stay up as late as possible. She needed sleep more than he did.

When Sodia was asleep, Flynn sat silently with his back against a tree, absently chewing on the last of his drumstick. He'd eaten more slowly, because he found he just wasn't that hungry. He knew he needed to eat to keep up his strength, though, so he forced himself to eat regardless.

He liked having something to chew on, at least. It served as a distraction from his leg. On the other hand, his leg was so sore that it drowned out all his other injuries and made them seem mild in comparison. So, at least there was a silver lining to his situation. He just wished the thing being lined with silver could have been anything other than an agonizing and crippling injury.

The hours droned on, and Flynn leaned his head against the tree trunk and wished there were enough gaps in the trees to see the stars. The trunk was rough and dirty, but he still hadn't gotten all the dried mud out of his hair from yesterday so he wasn't too worried about that. All things considered, he felt pretty good. Sodia estimated they would rejoin the path in another day or two, and from there it would only be a few more days to Aurnion. Then he could taste the sweet relief of glorious lemon gels and he daydreamed about running around, dancing, skipping, jumping - all things he never put much thought into until his leg cracked. Yuri was in Aurnion right now, awaiting his arrival. They were scheduled to arrive the day after tomorrow, and he hoped Yuri didn't get too worried when he didn't show up.

A log fell into the fire, sending a shower of sparks into the air. Flynn jolted out of his daydreaming, realizing he'd been a very poor watchman. He glanced around the campsite and ensured nothing was wrong. He couldn't see any movement, but then he realized all the sounds of the forest had gone silent again. Dread trickled down his spine. His eyes darted around the trees, looking for - but desperately hoping they wouldn't find - a shadow.

He was so busy searching with his eyes that he almost didn't notice the scent creeping up on his nose. For a few seconds, he thought it was just the Cluckit starting to rot. Sodia had dragged it away from their campsite for this purpose, but it was possible the scent could still reach them. He brushed that thought aside, though, because even if he was no butcher, he knew what rotting animals smelled like and they did not smell like fresh blood.

That was the scent: blood. It seemed to get stronger once he identified it and his skin crawled. There was no good reason a forest should smell like blood when he hadn't heard any indication that something nearby had just been killed. The scent overpowered even the composting leaves and smoke from their fire, and the shadows lurking between every tree seemed to grow darker.

He swallowed heavily as the feeling of being watched settled over him. He felt exposed as invisible eyes bore into him, and with that feeling came judgement. Why was he feeling judgemental? With a jolt, he realized that he wasn't. Something else was feeling judgemental, and feeling it so powerfully it reached Flynn. His insides squirmed with unplaceable guilt, like a dog caught next to a stain on the carpet. His eyes went to the bones of his meal and the stains on the stump and the sudden urge to hide the evidence raced through him.

"S…Sodia," he croaked, his voice taut with fear. Fear of what? Of a scary smell and paranoia? His call hadn't woken her, and he decided not to try again. She had to hike all day tomorrow and she needed her rest. He wouldn't wake her unless he saw a tangible danger.

Tangible or not, he couldn't shake the guilt that sat like a rock in his stomach. They had ripped apart that Cluckit, spilled its guts and desecrated its corpse, and then cast it aside to rot while only eating meat from the limbs. That was wrong. That was barbaric. Most terrifyingly of all, Flynn couldn't even place where he'd gotten these ideas from.

All his logical reasoning from the daytime went up in smoke. He didn't know what and he didn't know precisely where, but there was something in the woods with them, and it didn't like them.