Andrew woke up in what seemed to be the middle of the night. He was very cold, even with the fire in front of him. He felt weird, apparently, he had slept for longer than used to, so his head was still foggy, and his eyes struggled to stay open. When his eyes adjusted, he saw Camilo on the opposite side of the cave, without his shirt. Andrew saw a couple scars here and there, with his current knowledge of what Camilo did, he guessed it was because of some sort of training.
Andrew looked outside, after checking Camilo. Kalenis was looking at the remains of the Kalmeyar and walked around it slowly. He didn't mind him and, after fiddling a bit in his sleepy stupor, took off his left glove. This crap must have broken, was the first thing that came to mind. It was pitch dark outside, but the clock marked 6 o'clock, in the morning, no less. It was too early for it to be so dark. Camilo turned around and greeted him, he had dark stains in his chest, possibly, where the Kalmeyar had smacked him the day before.
"Good—" he looked towards the outside and returned to Andrew "—Night, apparently. You slept like a log." His weird smile was there, even in this weird situation, as if he enjoyed it.
Andrew saw Camilo better. Back on earth, he used baggy clothing, or shirts with patterns that didn't show a lot of his figure, but for such a young, thin man, Camilo had a lot of muscle. He was well defined, and it showed the effort he had put into preparing for this trip. Andrew felt bad about himself, again, looking as his beer belly.
"How long have I slept?" he groaned, getting the sheets off of him, "It should be night in a few hours, it's still early."
"You're right, it's early. I'd say around 6 or 7 a.m. you slept almost a whole day."
"What the hell?! What do you mean a.m.?"
"As in 6 in the morning? I thought I mentioned time would be weird. It went dark about 4 hours ago. Dusk lasted for ever, but night has been short so far."
"You know what?" Andrew said, defeated, "I'll believe anything you say from now on. This is just too weird for me. I'm too tired to argue. God, why am I so tired?"
"To be honest, it's been a wild ride: we crossed an inter-dimensional gate, you learned of the existence of new worlds, almost die, twice, cut your face and hurt your arm with a bow, then, you talked to a giant bird and ate enough for three meals in one sitting."
Andrew was surprised, if true, this had been such an emotional journey, that it had affected even his perception of things. And it had just begun! He didn't believe he would be able to stand much more of it, and who knew how long would it take them to go back into his own world. It felt weird to even think about it as his own, and not just the one.
"I'm having trouble adjusting to it. Can you imagine if a physicist were to find out about this? It would be the rage. How many scientists would kill to be here?"
"It's better if they don't." Camilo's smile died off slowly, as he grabbed his shirt to cover himself again.
"How can you say that?! Think of all the progress 'we' as humans could bring to our world. To the rest of them."
"In 'my' world. We-" Camilo said between grunts as he put his shirt on, his wounds screaming at him at each movement, "'We' as 'humans' have made a lot of damage, in particular, to Yi-intakael. We brought a dark age that lasted hundreds of years, If Parminea was right, and she usually was. I wasn't the first to go to Yi-intakael."
"I thought you said you were summoned there"
"I was. It's not the only way in." Camilo's arm slipped through the sleeve and he grunted once more, "Most humans I met remember falling before they got there. As it seems to be common with us 'Shokans'."
"you what?"
"a term derived from a few Japanese and Orc terms. Summoned people, basically." Camilo finished dressing, and turned to face Andrew, "'People' will get scared, and will fight what they don't understand. There are races that can wipe out cities by themselves. One 'person' is less likely to do that. For that reason, these things should be kept secret."
"You have a point, but you can't deny that…" Andrew's voice died off as he tried to find any advantage he could to prove his point. "I guess you're right. I'll go out for a sec, I guess."
Andrew braced himself and got out of the cave, covering himself. The darkness was a new thing to him. A 'natural' world, without any kind of lightning coming from any town nearby, was darker than he could imagine. If it wasn't because of the fires around, he would be blind. He walked towards the restless Kalenis, and the cold shook him to the ground as soon as he stepped out, finally waking him up. Kalenis saw him approach and gave him something resembling a smile, maybe a real smile, but his beak made his expressions look weird to Andrew. He stopped pacing around the remains of the Kalmeyar, and waited for Andrew to reach him.
"How do you feel, human?" He asked, it seemed Kalenis was very curious.
"Tired." Andrew groaned, "I'm Andrew by the way; I don't think I've told you my name."
"'Andrew'" Kalenis repeated while looking at him. "Nice to officially meet you. Is the cold wind treating you well?"
"I prefer tropical weather. How is your wound?"
"It is healing. The wind and the cold heal Celestials. Slowly but surely, by the morning I will have new feathers and no more wounds." He turned for Andrew to see the remains of the wound, which was mostly closed by now.
"About that… you know what an 'hour' is? I'm really confused about time here."
"I have heard humans talk about hours. I have some experience with it, but I do not measure them with great precision."
"Oh, okay. How do you know when will the morning come?"
"The light will come back by then. That is how… Human, Andrew, I have been wondering. How do you and your companion understand me, a Celestial, and the Kalmeyar, a Groundbound?"
"Well, you both speak English, so…"
"En-glish. Is that the name for your language?"
"It is, you have a slightly northern accent. That beast sounded as a whisper from where I was, so I don't know if he had an accent"
"You say weird words, Andrew." It seemed Kalenis was happy with the exchange, but his tone didn't change, "Language is expressed through them between you two. But your bodies also speak, even when you do not hear them. We speak with our elements, as such, Celestial voices are carried by the winds, fickle but everlasting, Groundbound voices rumble the world, they are slow, but firm, loud yet tender."
"I… I just understand you; I hear your voice coming from you. Not from the wind… maybe the portal did something to us?"
"You could think that. What do you know of them?"
"Close to nothing. Camilo can feel them, but I don't see or hear, or feel them. He says it's magic. But, well, with all I've seen today, it wouldn't be a crazy thought."
"Magic. I do not know that word. Is it the life inside your companion's body? The one he tied there?"
"He wrote about making a rune to keep his magic from running out. Maybe it's that."
"Do you believe in his words?"
"I don't know what to think anymore." Andrew said, looking to the distance, "A few hours ago, well, before we got here, I thought he was making all this up. That he was crazy. He said he was killing a god before coming back to our world"
"God." He repeated with a cracking voice.
"Oh, those are—"
"That is what some humans called me when I was a hatchling lost in your world."
"You're what!? How long ago was that?"
"I would not know, your cycles are shorter, they do not repeat, like ours do."
"You don't die?"
"We do. But we start anew; we do not repeat mistakes from previous cycles. I can only wonder what Kalmeyar will learn from this" Kalenis walked around the remains, he kept seeing into them, as if they told him a story he couldn't read. "Hopefully, he will learn to respect humans."
"Should we bury him? I mean, our dead don't come back and we bury them, so that beasts won't eat them or sully their corpses."
"That is for both of you to decide. You were the ones that ended him."
"Oh… w- well, it was him or us- I mean, if we could-"
"I am not judging, Andrew. It is what happened, and there is no changing it now. It still… it saddens me, somehow."
"Were you friends?"
"'Friend' is not something we are, but we have known each other… from many cycles before he fell into… this"
"Then Camilo and I leave to you the choice of what to do with him. I don't think he'll mind" Andrew reached out to Kalenis' back, rubbing it slightly with a smile "I think this could be a good time to know each other once more, to start again, so to speak"
"It could be. Thanks for this Andrew, you brought me the words I needed to make my mind. I will wait for Kalmeyar, I will give him another chance, and this time I will not leave him alone."
"Hey, there's something bothering me since Camilo pointed it out. What did you do with the eggs I put in front of you earlier this day?"
"Oh, those eggs. I let them burrow into the ground, they are probably halfway to the center of the world, a shame you could only save eight of them"
"So, you knew they weren't all we found."
"I assumed that. Those eggs are the roots of change, they pop above the ground in the hundreds, most of them crack and vanish before reaching age to dig, I guess you thought about eating them, but you would have gone empty handed"
"You're quite smart, knowing all that."
"It is one of the few unchanging things of this world"
Andrew spent a while talking with Kalenis, they spoke about the unknown, about the coming storm, and about their feats, Kalenis did most of that talk, but Andrew was entertained with it. He returned to the cave when the cold threatened to crush his bones, leaving Kalenis to mourn his friend in silence.
Andrew grabbed the same arrow he left by his crude bed and ran it through another one of the fruits. He took all of its spikes and then started roasting it with the fire. The spikes didn't have much flavor, although they melted in the mouth and gave him a little rush of energy in each byte, he worried they would be narcotic, but the rush was too good in the cold to let it pass.
"Get up"
"What do you want now Camilo?" Andrew stood up and saw Camilo coming with a thick fabric in his arm, he took his left arm and put it on top, the fabric was big enough to cover his entire arm, where he began to tie it down "is that all you want?"
"Hold still, I'll put some on your neck and your legs. It should be enough to cover you in the right places."
"Where did you even get that? It feels like a thick cotton fabric."
"This is from the skin of that thing. While you slept, I was trying to figure out how to treat it."
"And you made it softer. Why? Is this some sort of armor? That doesn't look like it will hold more than a breeze away."
"You'll see. Remember how this is tied, if you take them off and need them later and I'm away you'll have to put them on by yourself"
"Why would you be away? There- stop- stop pulling it! You're going to choke me. Just leave it like that."
"I don't know, maybe I went to the bathroom and you found a ninja trying to rob you. No, no, not that loose. Tighten it more! If you leave it that loose it'll be the same as if you don't have it on." Camilo let go of the lace on Andrew's neck piece, he didn't let him tighten it and his hands were in the way.
"What is even the point? This feels like cotton. It's not like it will magically stop anything—" right in the middle of his neck he felt a stinging pain, Camilo had stabbed his neck with blinding speed and short movements, there was no blood, at least it didn't feel like that, and after Andrew stumbled back and put his hand on his wound, somehow, he found there was nothing, only a slight scratch on the fabric "What the fuck is your problem Camilo?!"
"What? You wouldn't believe me if I said it could stop a knife or a blade. So, there you see it. Now tighten it up. It will suck up most of the force."
"You are a monster Camilo, you could have killed me!"
"No doubt about it. I put enough 'oomph' in it to drive it all the way through your neck. And what? You got probably the same as a light push in it. You're not even having trouble breathing"
He needs better communication skills, crossed his mind but when he thought about it, he wouldn't take the time to explain something simple if he could just show it, although it was getting bothersome, having to guess what did he want, what was he doing. Andrew made a frown and let him work in silence, tying it as he needed.
"are you done?" he smelled himself and frowned "God, I smell like a bull"
"Oh yeah you do, you better get used to that."
Camilo stepped back and started putting his own armor, this was slightly smaller, it covered his forearms and his own neck, but he had no chest piece to cover himself, he started putting the leg and thigh pieces, tying them up in seconds, he crouched a couple of times to test them and turned to Andrew, who was having trouble with the final parts, as he tried to wear the coat over the armor.
"Let me help."
"I can do this Camilo. No need to go stabbing me again" Andrew turned around and kept trying to tie them up. The laces were thick and difficult to handle but they were placed in easy spots to tie, after fondling them a bit, Andrew was able to tie them as he wanted to "tight enough for you?"
"Sure. Sorry about that. But you still won't believe anything I tell you"
"Okay fine, but if you take your time explaining you don't have to try and do this shit. Camilo, this is incredibly stressful. I don't need to be afraid of you when I'm afraid of everything else. Please talk to me and I'll do my best to believe you"
"Okay, I'll try to explain things from now on, okay?"
"Also. Um… can you—will you teach me archery?"
"If you want, I mean, I said I would teach you yesterday. But it would be better if you also learn how to fight body to body"
"Close quarters."
"What?"
"That's the word, close quarters fighting is when you go punching people, or stuff like that, close to the opponent"
"I didn't know that."
"I was in the army when I was younger, just a year though; they teach you close quarters combat."
"But you have lousy reflexes, you suck, sorry about that"
"It was over 20 years ago. And I don't go fighting every day. You are quite a freak in that way, you can keep up with those monsters and Kalenis, and the monsters were unknown things."
"That comes with the years, the most important is usually to watch the opponent, there was the giant bone in the… thing—"
"Abernas"
"Right, the giant bone supported it, so you could try and break that to make it fall. If it doesn't work, you go for the next thing that will make them fall, the only leg it had. That is if the opponent is bigger than you. Then we got the Kalmeyar. It had magic, and something that felt like a pointed tail. But it wasn't visible, so you have to study, what would you have thought of first, facing an invisible weapon?"
"Shape, I think. Then if it's sharp, or has an edge, or if it's something like a hammer, then try and avoid it"
"Wow, I have to teach you less than I thought… but you're still missing important things. I tend to think in a pessimist way. If I don't see it, it's poisonous, so I better not touch it. Then, what about reach? Where can it hit? Does it surround its body? Can it shoot things? All that, you have to think, it takes a while—you don't just find all that out in one fight. But you learn to get the important details in as little time as you can"
"Then what? You'll teach me all that in a couple of days? I don't think we can do that"
"Of course not, but it can be of help on the long run. We'll take a bit of time when we get to warm land to teach you about archery. Then you'll practice with trees, and when you get the hang of it, we'll go to animals, but it will be in time. It should take us about a month to reach the portals, so we have time."
"A month!?" Andrew let himself fall to the ground, he thought it would be shorter, every trip he had seen was short, then he realized, Camilo said the portals were a few hundred miles away, they had lost a few days in the cave and they had a lot more walking to do "I'm going to die before we get there" there were tears showing in his eyes.
"C'mon Andrew, don't let yourself get down for that." Camilo crouched next to him, cleaning his tears, "It's bad for you. Besides, we'll be busy, and it's a month in our time. It will be far less with this crazy time once we get used to it."
Andrew resigned himself. He wanted to go home as fast as he could, but if portals were that far away from each other in every world, it would take him years to come back, if he could even come back. Camilo took the bag and put it on his shoulders. Only then, Andrew realized that Camilo's 'armor' barely even covered him. It was covering his legs but not his knees, he had nothing on his chest, and his neck and forearms were covered by it. It was a big contrast to him, he was covered everywhere but his head and his crotch.
"Hey Camilo. You didn't have enough to make yourself more armor?"
"Well… I wasted a lot of this trying to figure out how could I mold it to pieces I wanted. So, it got reduced to pretty much what you and I are wearing—oh you're worried—no, relax, I tend to dodge everything so I don't actually wear full body armor, I gave all that to you, because I didn't know if you could. We'll fix that on the way to the portals. You should be a somewhat decent archer and fighter by then."
"Gee, thanks for that"
"Oh please, you don't think you'll be able to fend off anything in just a moth"
"I'm a fast learner"
"And I will teach you, but you won't have real fighting experience unless you fight, which is not happening any time soon, let's go, Kalenis should be done soon, he'll be our guide to get down from here"
They got out of the cave, it was still dark out, but Camilo made a torch so they could see part of the way. The sun would rise in a few hours, and, if Kalenis was right, the storm would start shortly after that, so they had, at best, 6 hours before the storm hit.
They walked a while in a straight line from the cave, the snow slowed their walking but they forged on, Camilo leading and Andrew shortly behind. They were warmer now since they were moving and there was little wind, but their march was slow, since Camilo was wounded. Camilo talked most of the way, explaining the shape of his bow, how did it work, what care should be taken if they were to use it for fighting, and how different was it from hunting. Andrew tried to keep up with the subject but there was too much to memorize, and walking at the same time didn't help. He wasn't used to walk with this much snow in the way, even in winter he didn't have to walk so much since the sidewalks would be mostly snow-free.
Kalenis guided them, and waited ahead when it grew harder for them to walk because of the steep slope on the mountainside. He flew ahead of them, resting in places they could see to follow him, each time farther away since the sun was rising before they thought it would. Andrew kept the robe tightly shut with his hand while he walked, the cold stung him deeply, and he was growing worried about Camilo. His walking was swift, but he was slightly bent to his right side, and he had a very pronounced limp with his left leg, he approached to him and leaned on his side, easing his walk. Now that he was closer, he heard his ragged breathing.
They walked in silence for the next hours, only saying what they needed, with the wind filling in for them, Kalenis waited patiently before taking off to the next spot once Andrew showed him how bad Camilo was. Andrew could see the concern in Kalenis' face, they were moving slower than anticipated and the sun was already rising, and he kept looking upwards. Andrew was carrying a bit more of Camilo's weight, trying to fasten their paces.
They finally saw the first green vegetation starting to surround them, small clumps of moss growing in the uncovered rock on the side of the crevice they were crossing, it had only room for one of them, so Camilo was sliding slowly behind Andrew, he was trying to hide the amount of effort he put in each step but Andrew already knew he was in bad shape. Once they were out, they kept walking, Camilo pushed Andrew away and tried to walk on his own. He was walking faster, but he still had his limp.
"Look, we can rest if you want. You know that, right?" Andrew said, once he couldn't stand watching Camilo in pain.
"I'm fine"
"The storm will not hit this area with all its might, you can rest, humans. Even if that rest must be short, it is better if you do"
"I said I'm fine. I can keep walking."
"You can barely stand straight. Let's take a break, okay?"
"If we stop for everything, we won't make it to the portals in a month. We keep going."
"The portals will be there in a year or two, you have to rest Camilo. You're all bruised."
"…" Camilo looked at both of them, they were standing their ground and they wouldn't budge an inch if he didn't accept their demands. "Fine. Ten minutes. No more"
"How long will that be?"
"Hum…. Count until 10 thousand. That should be it." Andrew helped Camilo sit down and sat by his side. A cool wind passed by them and Andrew saw many clouds gathering towards the top of the mountain. "In the meantime, how about you tell me more about that time you escaped Elkoala?"
"We don't have time for the whole story again Andrew. We have to move in a couple—"
"It's not the whole story. C'mon, you said you would tell me."
"You have a remarkable memory."
"Hey, I may seem disinterested, but I pay attention when people talk"
"Okay, fine, where did I leave it?"
"You said someone was coming with Elkoala. And you had to clean blah, blah, blah, and the other guys tried to hit you a couple of hours before they got to the camp"
"Ah yeah, I told them to behave like grown-ups, if I'm not mistaken. Shadow ratted me out to the rest. And the one leading the charge was Emotal. Emotal was—you know? Actually, Kalenis looks similar to him, except he had arms embedded into his wings and they were only skin, not feathers. But the shape of the head and the height are almost the same."
"So, he looked like those vampires from the movies, right?"
"Well, bird-like. But almost, he actually couldn't fly, he was… too heavy for that." Camilo seemed to pause before some parts of the story, but Andrew didn't really understand why, "Whatever, he was running at me and jumped to bite my head off. Kind of his signature move. So, I let him get as close as I felt comfortable and grabbed him by the arms when he passed over me, then I just pulled a bit and drove him face first to the ground."
"You- you almost didn't do anything. He pretty much hit himself with all his impulse into the ground"
"You see? That fight was mostly that. I saw them training all the time and I knew all their vices and preferences when they fought. And you thought I couldn't fight them just because I wasn't well fed."
"Okay, yeah, boo hoo, I get it, go on"
"Fine, but you're taking all the fun out of it. Okay so, now Emotal was on the ground, the surprise didn't give him enough time to defend or anything, and he was out cold. Well, for a while, but then the others got really pissed off. Like they were only gonna make a mess and teach me a lesson, but now it was personal. So, anyway…
The camp was silent after Emotal was on the ground, everyone was watching me as I got up and dusted myself. I just looked at him, I felt good. It was great, all of them were kind of waiting until Emotal got up and ripped me apart. I turned to look at them; I stood like in the movies, reached out and said what was boiling in me. Now, keep in mind this happened a while ago, so I don't have a lot of the details. The story may not make a lot of sense, but I remember what I said.
- Bring it motherfuckers!
Well, I tried saying it, but it came as a lung-tearing roar. It was the loudest I had been in years and it felt awesome!
The next one to come at me was Felanor, the ripped elf, he put his hand on his forehead and took out his signature foil. It was a thin and beautiful sword, the handle had a green gem, the guard was pure white, and the blade was in a deep black that drove your eyes towards it. It was eerie, since it looked like it had its own will to kill. He ran towards me with it on his left hand.
I didn't see Chira get behind me, but I knew it, it always did that in practice, and it moved slowly so no one could hear it. I stood there, waiting, then Felanor made a funny face and I ran towards him. He stepped back and in that split-second of doubt he had, I kicked him in the nuts. He dropped the foil and I took it to slash behind me, where I made a wide cut in the middle of Chira's chest, the foil started burning in my hand so I had to drop it. I drove my elbow to Felanor's face and my knee to Chira's chest.
Felanor was the next one to fall, Chira was still staring at me as if its eyes could do something, but it and I knew that if it moved, Felanor's foil blade would activate.
He said it once, during training, when he hit Monga on accident, he shouted at her to stay still or the blade would dive into the wound. They waited half an hour before she got up.
Bagur, Monga and Saimer surrounded me while Samier checked Chira for anything else he could do to stop the bleeding. Bagur shouted his orders, they were trying their usual approach: surround, and suppress.
Monga jumped and kind of pushed the air behind her to gain momentum towards me, I jumped and punched in front of me to stop Saimer from holding me with his huge arms, they flinched when my tiny fist found its head, and I spat on him. Monga had panic on her face, she was below him and he expelled a cloud of steam right on her face, the cloud was small, since it was only my saliva on him, but so close, it had to burn. Bagur wasn't behind me as their strategy demanded. He saw me defending and took a different approach.
Now Older One was moving all the non-combatants out of the way, his giant eye unblinking and following every movement I made, I never knew exactly what could he do, his tentacles were all he used to attack, but he couldn't be just that, so him and shadow were the ones that made me nervous.
When the steam faded, Samier was in Bagur's place, Bagur had ran around me in the time the steam lasted and had signaled positions to everyone else.
Shadow came from below me, and his knife almost cuts off my head, if I didn't hear his laughter I would have died. Bagur hadn't given any order, so shadow was, as usual, acting on his own. That gave me a few seconds. He moved between shadows if he wanted, but he turned corporeal to attack. He tried to stab me in the gut, but I rolled with his knife, he wasn't as fast as Felanor and I'd been faster than him, so I took him by the arm, and took my elbow to his face, but he dropped his knife and turned into a shadow again.
I took the knife and ran towards Slime, jumping over Chira, with Bagur screaming commands to everyone. Smoke came between Slime and me and I put the knife ahead of me.
Since he was different, I couldn't stab him with it, but I could stab him at the same time, he could change that for his advantage, but he had to let me through him, or I would have killed him the moment he became tangible.
When I was in front of slime, it tried to envelop me with its body, but I cut a piece of it and threw it to Saimer. Then Samier kicked my legs and I fell to the ground, I was bleeding from my mouth when the steam hit me again, Saimer had been busy trying to heal Monga's burns and didn't see me throw a piece of slime onto him.
Samier was the only one that knew where I was and he grabbed me by my head, trying to crush it, I kicked him in the nose and he let me go. Then I kicked his legs and made him fall before I jumped on his head. He was out cold by the second jump but I jumped a few times more, out of enjoyment and for security.
Smoke had been blown away from the steam and was in the ground squirming, he wouldn't fight anymore that day, so now there were four people down, and the steam receded once more. Monga's scream was loud as shit, she pushed Saimer away and ran to get me, even if Bagur shouted to her to stop. I jumped to the left when she passed me by and ran towards Bagur, He was the only one that seemed ready to stop me so I went and punched him in the gut. He took a step back and punched me in the face, I fell to the ground when Monga slashed at me with her claws, cutting Bagur's chest and throwing him towards the stables.
Monga was disoriented about her own attack and I took the chance to try and cut her, but she had an extreme hearing sense, she turned around and kicked me, so I fell to the ground, the pain made me see black for a while, she came close to me and tried to crush my head with her foot, but she hit shadow in his head when he appeared to cut my neck while I was down, thanks to Kiltha, shadow wasn't a team player, he was knocked out from the sheer amount of strength in Monga's kick.
I got up and stepped away from Monga, but Slime surrounded me, it made a wall with its body, but it got away every time I tried to cut it down, only making a slight opening for her claws to rip me apart. I looked around and took Monga's claw right in my left arm; I grabbed it with my right one and spun her around, spreading Slime all over the place, and finally getting him off my back. But Monga tried to hit me with her free claw
She cut me very deep in the stomach, but that gave me room to drive the knife into her arm, she screamed and I punched her in the face until she stopped moving. It took me like five minutes to bring her down and in the end, my hands had more blood on them than she had on her face.
I turned around and Saimer was right in front of me, his arms in the air, ready to smash me flat, I spat on him again and got my face burned from the steam, but stopped him for long enough for me to get away from him, he was too hard to knock out, and I had no more weapons. Older One made me trip with its tentacles and I remember a heavy blow, then all was black."
"So… this Monga was the one that took out most of them, you barely even did anything"
"I didn't say I took them all down, I just said I fought back. But yeah, if I hadn't made Monga angry, they would have shredded me."
"And this shadow person," Kalenis interjected, "he made a mess of the teamwork in that group, why was he that way?"
"Well, I don't know what to tell you Kalenis, he was the loner in that group, I guess it was because he did only covert missions. I feel better now, we can go on" Camilo stood up and stretched a bit, until he felt a stinging pain on his side. "Ouch… I guess it'll be a while before this stops hurting."
"We should wait a bit more"
"No. You wanted me to stop, but we've been here longer than we agreed, we have to go or the storm will get to us before we're far enough."
"You are not in condition to force yourself, Camilo. You should stay here a while longer, at least until you actually heal"
"It'll take me days for that, and you said the storm would be here after the sun so I'll be fine, let's just go and I'll rest after we get away from here—Stop looking at me like that! I'll be fine, just relax"
"No, you relax, you need to heal."
"You need healing, waiting will help, that is why you need to rest. There is no rush, we can wait here, the worst part of the storm will be up there, we left the dangerous area a while ago."
"Oh please! I'll be fine. Look, it doesn't eve— Ouch!" Camilo's arm falls as soon as he raises it, the stinging pain shooting from it all the way to his head "let's at least walk slowly, a bit. Please?"
"No. we stay, and that's it" Andrew pushes Camilo to the ground, there, the sunlight hits him on his face "besides, it's warm down here, we don't need a fire and Kalenis says we're far enough so we can wait."
"Fine. Whatever" Camilo sat down again and put some snow on his left leg, and patted it a couple of times "Then what do we do while we wait?"
"Well, we already ate… we have time… keep going with your tale"
"You just wanted me to keep talking, don't you?"
"It is a rather interesting story. And it has many fantastic elements"
"Whoa there, there's no fantasy, all that actually happened"
"Surely it did, it is, however, a fantastic tale to be told."
"Sometimes, I just despise you, you know that, right?"
"Just get on with it." Andrew said, seeing it wasn't going anywhere, "You said, back home, that after that it was better to die in the wild than with these people. Why? You just hit them back, they should have just taken revenge, or something"
"Well, if I'm going to be talking non-stop, you can practice with my bow. You see that tree over there? Try to shoot an arrow to its center, aim lower so that they won't go too far. If you heard me on the way, you know how to find your dominant eye."
"What if I fail? Or hit my face again? I don't want to be sewn again"
"Just remember all I told you and you'll be fine. Start with the bow slightly further away from your body, and then take it closer. Don't hold your breath, and pay attention to your body. It will hurt if your stance is wrong. Either way, I'll give you advice while I talk. Your braces should suck up almost all the string force if you hit your arm again."
"I guess…" Andrew said, not entirely convinced.
"Okay, I'll start now, I was saying they would kill me, it should have been like that. But I told you, the emperor was coming, the whole point of the fight was to avoid making a mess, and then the mess happened anyway…
I woke up a few hours later, I think, and it was dark outside, and now, I was in the holding cell. Based on how I woke up, they just dumped me there. I had been bandaged and taken the usual, minimum, care. So, with all the pain in the world, I got up and tried to open the door, slowly, since I didn't know if they were outside.
The door was barred with something outside, I could open it a bit, but more would make noise so I stopped when it was slightly ajar. Light entered from it, so there had to be someone outside.
I started sweating when I heard Elkoala's voice on the other side, and someone else I didn't recognize. My worst nightmare was right in front of that door, so I had everything to lose. Older one and Saimer were there too, and from what I heard, they were explaining themselves. Elkoala seemed pissed off, the other one was amused by the tale. It looked like I woke up just when they got to the camp and demanded an explanation.
- Tell me why I shouldn't just smash you all to bits for this. - he said, I could hear him grinding his teeth.
- Oh, please Elkoala, let them continue, look at the poor children, they're so scared, let them speak
- Yes, Milord. What happened? Why was the camp in such a mess and over half of my squad lying on the ground wh-
- W-Well, y-you see, sir—
- Do NOT interrupt me, Saimer. Why was Ohi'lokar spilled all over the camp, trying to collect itself, and Chira was not only injured, but immobile due to Felanor's foil?
- Oh, don't forget that your little orc soldier came out full of Snapper and Kil'magren's shit
"Wait, what's a Kil'magren?"
"It's a creature that walks on four legs, it has wings on its back but it can't fly too high, about five or six meters in the air, it's covered in scales and its head is similar to a bear, but flat, not with the long nose and that"
"Sounds as one of the Undersoiled, it must have traveled to your world"
"Are you gonna let me finish or do you want to study the species?"
"Go on"
"Thanks, where was I? Oh right, the shit
- The biggest question I have for both of you is, why is my slave in there? He had explicit orders to clean everything up, and ALL of you had orders to stay out of his way.
- S-sir, I—
- Monga thought about having a blindfold race in the camp, about ten minutes before the human finished cleaning. As usual, to make him look bad, but this time, the human voiced his disapproval, Lomenti overheard him, and rallied everyone to 'teach the brat a lesson'
- h-hey Older one!
- Oh, shush little…
- Oh, Saimer, sir.
- shush, little Saimer, let the Tenagar tell its story
- Why do you know this, and didn't do anything to stop it?
- I am in charge of not letting the human escape, and surveying the camp. At the moment, it didn't look as if it would get out of hand. Also, the beasts were tied and sedated from when you left the camp in the morning
- ohohohoho, your little human pet started a riot over nothing, Elkoala.
- Just… just go on, Older one
- The one that started everything was Emotal, from his behavior, he ran for the kill. The human reacted in good time. A moment sooner, or later, and his head would have ended on the ground. But the one who fell was Emotal, then the human preyed on every training failure that they have had before. Monga's anger, Saimer's steam, Lomenti's failure as a team member, and such. His biggest challenges were Ohi'lokar, Samier, and Monga. Otherwise, he developed well during the fight.
- stop praising the brat! He isn't more than a slave. He should die for what he did.
- And since when do YOU have a say on MY slave's punishments?
- I didn't mean it that way sir! It was out of line. I apologize.
- Whatever, I want to know why, after seeing all of this, you still didn't move in to stop it, Older one
- It was not in my orders. I stepped in when Saimer went for the kill. Stopping the human and him, finishing the trouble and providing first aid to the injured, except for Chira's special situation. They are all currently in the infirmary, Bagur is cleaning himself
- so, what are you going to do, Elkoala? I can be quiet about this… humorous display, as a personal amusement, but your troops will probably kill the slave.
- … You all will receive punishment. A human. A poorly fed human at that, swept the camp with you, you will suffer, that will teach all of you. As for him. I will have him experience the true consequences of his acts as soon as I come back from your castle, your highness.
- Oh, am I going to miss the execution?
- It will not be pleasant, your highness, He is to set an example to anyone that would ever find such disgrace out, if our previous actions set the bar, we will probably surpass it with him, I would not force you to see something so disgusting. Shall we part?
- Of course. At least give the little human a medal, he did put most of your troops to shame
- Saimer. You will keep an eye on the injured, get Bagur to the infirmary and do NOT let anyone leave the place. Inform them of their fate, and the human's, if even one of them is missing in the morning, I will personally execute him or her. Older one, you will make sure no one kills the human, keep him under watch. I will find some sort of a medal to give him, do not let him know of his fate.
Then, they left, I couldn't see any of them, but now I knew they would kill me. And who knew what Elkoala was planning to do. I guess I knew it was just a matter of time, but hearing them talk about it made me feel afraid. If it was going to be the same, at least I would die on my terms.
I waited until the camp was in absolute silence. About four hours after I woke up. I pushed the door open and Older one was there, watching me…
He could kill me, we both knew that, but he just floated there, even as I moved towards the door. He didn't move until I left the room.
He followed me everywhere in the camp, in silence, without stopping me. I went to the kitchen and took two knives; I tied them to my pants and walked by him. When I got to the camp door, he stood behind me, still watching me.
- will you stop me? If I go out? - I grabbed one of the knives, my hand was shaking, I had no idea what was he able to do.
- Those are not my orders.
- Will you follow me?
- I am to watch you; I can do so from here. No matter how far you are.
- Do I have a chance of getting away?
- if the general was here, no. If you don't kill me first, no. If you kill me and escape, a slight one.
Then... I just started running. I ran as fast as I could, and I kept going after every fall on the way... I thought, if I manage to get to the mountains before the morning, I'll be safe.
I was so tired.
I ran and ran, and the mountains didn't seem to get any closer… what did come closer was something resembling a small farm that was falling apart. The mountains were far away, but the morning was far as well. I kept running to it and entered the barn, and fell exhausted.
I'll sleep a couple of hours, I still have the advantage. I can rest for a while.
I was such an idiot.
I woke up the next morning with a blade to my face, obviously, I jumped back, covered my face with my arms and screamed for a while. When I finished, I opened my eyes and saw a bear there, a tall one, maybe 2.4 meters or so.
"How much is that in feet? I don't use metric system."
"And you ask now? I've been using it all this time. It's about 6"8, maybe more"
"That's big, bigger than Kalenis, is he—"
"Go pick up your arrows, you made me sit, you have to hit that tree before we move again. Stand right or tomorrow all your back will hurt, get the string closer to you now, it's screwing your aim—why are you still standing there? Go, go, go!" Camilo gestured with his hands towards the tree, Andrew was baffled and Kalenis seemed to enjoy the little rant between them "what's so fun big bird?"
"Oh, nothing… you are a weird human. So much lived, so little time, are you sure you do not live in cycles? You seem like an inhabitant of this world."
"I got my own, not interested in this one. Though it's very cute, even the mountain, and most of it was white and dirt."
"Got them, keep talking."
"show me your stance first—raise your elbow, breathe- no, too close to your face, let me—" Camilo stood up behind Andrew and grabbed his hands with difficulty as Andrew's frame was bigger than him, he tried to correct the stance and sat down again "shoot the arrows and tell me if it feels different, don't hold your breath, shoot the last two with your other hand and check how different it is
Okay, so the bear was there, somehow even more scared than I was, but even then, he wasn't shaking, his face showed fear, but his body showed confidence. We didn't move for a while, I looked and I still had the knives, but I tied them so tight that he would have killed me if I tried to get one.
He looked at me for an eternity, then he put his sword down and took a step back, he pointed to the door without saying anything. I just stared, I thought he wanted to show me something, but there was nothing out there.
- you want me to go? Is this your home? - I guess it surprised him, by how his ears twitched a bit
- Go, human cub, ya'll get me killed, or worse.
"Wait, wait, wait, that hulking animal was afraid of you?"
"Let me talk! I'm on it
- I'm malnourished, I am hardly a threat.
- You're not it, it's da man behind dat - then he pointed to my side, what was left of my shirt had my ribs uncovered and there was Elkoala's emblem, I had actually forgotten he had me branded like three years before Leave or die
- fuck you! Everything wants to kill me, I'm not afraid of you
- ya scream like a cub, git out, liar
- Fine. I just thought you were him. - I argued, like I wanted the last word. I got up and went to the door, he kept our distance all the time, so he was cautious, at least that's what I thought - is there a city nearby? Or you'll have me running around anywhere? - Kiltha's grace, I had a lot of aggression inside me.
He stopped there for a moment, I guess he checked me out, as far as he knew, I was Elkoala's friend, soldier, or at least, pet. After a while I just turned around, and got out of the barn, I walked until I was, or thought I was, out of his property, and started looking everywhere.
I couldn't see the camp, and the cold wind almost screamed that the sun had just risen a while ago, so I hadn't slept as late as I thought, I still had time before he returned. I saw a couple of mountains to my left, so I decided that, at least, the wild would hide me. When I started walking, I saw him again, he was holding a small bag in his hand and he kept his sword in the left one.
- Dere's a city dat way, 'bout three hours on foot - he was pointing to the right of the mountains, then he threw the bag at my chest, and I held it away out of habit - dere's water dere and a pair of Qlake, eat dem and after dat ya can drink. If dat city is destroyed… just go. I want not'n to do with yours.
- Thank you. I will find some way of paying you back if I outrun them
I grabbed the small pouch as if my life depended on that, and ran again, my legs hurt me a lot, I was used to it, but it made my strides clumsy, I had no idea what was Qlake, I've never heard of it, so when I was as far as to not see him anymore, I slowed down and reached inside. The Qlake was a small ball, green, smooth, looked like a stone the size of a baseball, I licked it and it tasted like glory.
It was sweet, and had a slight 'green' taste, like the smell of grass, but it was tastier than anything I had eaten since I got there, I tried biting it but it was too hard. I suppose it was something like a jawbreaker, but I ate it in like ten minutes, so it wasn't that dense, and I felt full enough, the sweet gave me a wild rush, I was running and my hands shook, I felt dizzy. Years later I found out that, thank Kiltha, it wasn't a drug, just a packed stimulant, food.
The trip was nothing special, I ran on the plains, so there weren't many animals, and the ones I found were far away. I reached a river, the city was still far, but it was about a mile, it was visible. I had tied what was left of my shirt so people wouldn't see Elkoala's brand, and I thought I should bath in the river, but… I…"
"Is something wrong, human?" Kalenis seemed to worry about something, looking at Camilo. "are you well?"
"It's… what happened next was a difficult thing, I would rather calm down a bit before telling you that."