p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Go on, swing it at me." Panting like a tired boar, I swung the sword at his right arm, then wiping the sweat from my forehead. The steel bounced right off him harmlessly, and I flung it into a nearby tuft of grass./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Please, can we just have a break?" Drops of exhaustion slid down my skin, slippery – and even worse in this heat. Dune stared back at me, gazing straight into my weak and feeble eyes as I continued to pant. I pushed my back into a tree stump, uncaring of any bugs that might crawl over me. If I'm lucky, they'll lick the sweat off me and cool me down quicker./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You need to learn how to use a sword, Dandelion." Dune replied. He picked up the fallen weapon and offered it to me like he was offering me his hand, wanting me to grab it and stand once more; another try. I refused, shutting my eyes. The sweet, calming darkness drew me in, sleep at last… "Well, snoring our heads off isn't going to help us get to civilisation!" Sleep rejected./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""We're in the middle of nowhere, Dune! We've just washed up on a beach after a shipwreck, and now we're a needle in a haystack." My legs were stiff. I yanked myself from the dirt-riddled ground and rested against the low-hanging branch. "I mean, look around us. Forest here, forest there! Forest as far as the eye can see. We are running out of food, of… of water, and you're having me do miniature sword duels 'because I need to learn how to use one'. Is it really the time?! Please tell me you have a plan." I was shouting. I was shouting at him. I ducked my head, drawing my eyelids once more. "I'm sorry." I felt his stare protruding through the back of my neck, splitting the skin like a cold dagger. The coldness of this dagger on my skin; a relief from the heat of this weather…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""No, I'm sorry." He replied, sheathing both his sword and mine into his belt. I wish I could just rip all my clothes off and just let it breathe. Forest life wasn't for me, I suppose. He was half naked. No wonder he found this exercise easy. He wore no shirt, his skin respiring, and no drops of liquid shining from his back, or his arms, or his breasts, yet it felt like we'd been doing this for hours… "Listen, Dandelion, we're going to be fine, alright? I got you out of it before, and I'll help you again." He pat me on the back, his black beard shimmering amongst the newly-arrived wind, ducking and diving through tree-trunks and tall strands of grass. Heaven to my face. I felt replenished once more, drinking in the breeze… "One more?" He held the sword up. I grasped it./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Alright, alright. I'm done now." I dropped the sword. Another hour had passed, probably. The sun was setting, emitting a golden, juicy glow upon us and the wildlife. It was glorious and peaceful, yet even I knew we had to find shelter before it got dark. He sheathed his also, finally agreeing with me. I thought I saw a reflection on his tired brow, but he turned too quickly./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""We'll keep going for now. We'll reach something eventually."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I hope so. What I would do for some water…"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Listen, Dandelion," He has a habit of saying that, "regardless, sword or not, the message I'm trying to get across to you – is to not give up. Fight your side, else you'll fall. Do you understand?" he turned again, looking at me for a response. I stared back nodding. That was before his once bright and joyous eyes slid into a deafening black, a menacing black liquid flooding his sockets. Like possession. Then I was dragged from my thoughts./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"The little girl and I stood hopelessly on the gallows, wind smacking the air from our terrified lungs. I wobbled on the unusually small stool; The only thing keeping me alive whilst the rope tugged at my neck. Hunter stood petrified below, almost camouflaged in the crowd of people in front of us, awaiting our execution. Looking through tears, Tugna smirked from a distance, his cocky stride sending his message; crystal clear. I was angry. He wrenched my guts… He smiled in my face from across the crowd, as if saying "That's right, I've finally beaten you." I hadn't even known him that long, but his young and simple brain of his still wanted me dead. Shor was there too, and was one of the few who actually looked afraid. As well as Hunter, Shor wanted to get up here and save me from my fate. He peered from his blacksmith area with his short, tiny legs of his dwarf-structured body, and he feared for my life. I cast him a weak smile, more tears returning. I had lost Dune. I had lost everything. I turned. Finally, Cebri./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""For the trespass of village property." Her words stung like a striking sword, her wrinkles and grey hair moving in the wind. Frankly, she can go fuck herself. "For the assault of a peaceful woman of our community." The little girl beside me, bless her. She was terrified. She meant no harm. "And for the discovery of a personal enquiry regarding another citizen, and one of our medical staff." Bullshit, woman. The white-haired woman has left some demonic presence inside his body; God knows what him – or the thing inside him – will do now. She moved on to the girl now, listing her crimes like boxes on a checklist./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I sentence you to death." Words stinging, tanging like sour blood. The faceless, masked man kicked her stool, and the little girl choked, body flinging until it stopped once more. Death ushering her to a peaceful place… "Now, the bard." Her eyes. Her vicious eyes pointed at me, and the brute of the man behind me put his boot on my stool. I closed my eyes…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Bandits!" Someone screamed, jolting me like lightning. I daren't open my eyes. Was this a dream? Was I dying? Was this burst or jolt just the noose cracking my neck? No. Looking left: panic. Bashing on the unstable gates were hundreds of bandits. Hundreds. Trying to get through, their faces sharper than their wielded swords, they shattered the ground with their roar. For the first time in a century, people's spiking glares were off me. Instead, on the havoc at the entrance, before spreading like a plague upon the town, screaming; cracking my eardrums. This was panic like I've never seen it before. This was emterror/em. Up to this point, Cebri's people have been guarded and secure. Now, this was true terror. People whizzed about, not in jolly or passivity, but for their safety. Somehow, my stool had not been pushed, and I was stood here struck to the bone, helpless to the invasion. Bound and noosed./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Hunter. Thank fuck. He slipped from his detainer (who had lost interest and ran for the nearest building – honestly, this security has gone tits-up) and grabbed the nearest sword. From the belt of a guard, I think. It was hard to tell amongst the storm of people. He went straight to me. Behind me, in fact. So many around us, yet all of them ignoring us, hidden in plain sight. Did I just cheat death?/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Thank Melitele. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you." My profusions of thanks were as frequent as his stabs to the ropes that bound my wrists./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""We need to get out of here." He replied in panic, "This is not over." For the first time, I saw him panic. Ever since, he always looked like he had a plan. Currently, the sword he was cutting with was shaking, almost toppling me over the edge into death regardless. He was shaking amidst all of this. My heartbeat matched the thumps of the gate, and the cracking of the wood. We didn't have enough time…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What are we going to do?" I stuttered weakly, frozen to the spot, trembling and eyeing the progressive destruction of the enforcements./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""All that we can to get out of this mess." It was a race. A race on ice in a fog of smoke and mirrors. A race between the cutting of the rope and the gates. Who would be first? My life – everyone's lives – were at the tip of a shard./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I do hope so! Sometime soon, please?" I failed to pry a chuckle. Usually I was good at that: making light of a situation. Not now./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Listen to me," he was knocked to the floor and off the raised platform and into the blizzard of fear. A guard. Shit. I was powerless. Come on, he was almost through. I felt the strings of the cut rope, but I was still emjust /embound. I swore profusely. A guard tumbled atop Hunter, reaching for his sword to thrust up his throat. Suddenly, the glint of his sword exited the attacker's back, before the warm corpse slid off the end of it and onto the mud, creating a space for civilian's to trip over and fall to their demise. Now bloodied, Hunter's sword continued at my bounds, before that final tug liberated me. As swift as possible, I undid the rope around my neck and toppled down the stool, falling to the wood. My legs floundered, shock paralysing me./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh my goodness, are you alright?" I asked him, face tainted with bruises./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Yes, yes." And that's when the gates collapsed./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"There were hundreds of them. I swear there were. Blurs of bandits, multiplied and multiplied again, wielding sharp steel and shields, roaring and sprinting. Straight for the people of the village. Straight for us. Screams were deafened by the thunderous footsteps of leather against hard ground. This was it./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Run."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"He helped me. He helped me up and I lie on his shoulder, clambering from the platform. After, I let him go, confident on my own two feet and shielding my eyes from the running people. Everything that happened felt like an eternity, yet it was only a few seconds. Civilians melted to oozing corpses as the hostilities spread like water through the village. Horror at its purest. Dry in my mouth, lips cracked and white but not from thirst; from dread. We ran through the downpour. Both of us, I following him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Here, Dandelion. Here!" He ushered me to an arch-shaped wooden door, letting me duck inside into the darkness before him, latching the steel bolt behind him. We plunged into the abyss. Down the steps and onto the marble. It took me a few seconds to realise where I was, but my sense of smell noticed before my eyes. The medical lab. The what-should-be a clean hospital of a large, open space quickly became tainted with a shadowy, bloodied, murky basement full of death and absence. How long had it been like this? How long had this whole place turned to shit? Hunter retreated down the steps behind me, and I saw a figure in the room, blocking out the already slim flow of light from a nearby, high window./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Well, hello there."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Tugna./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""It's thoroughly nice to see you again." He croaked calmly, flicking his glinting sword between his palms, warming them for what was to come. Hunter drew his, yet I could see from his eyes that he wasn't comfortable using a sword./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I can't say the same to you." I replied, trying to cover my fear – the curse of a high-pitched, whiny voice, coming to haunt me again in the most important of times. I stood my ground, legs shaking like a tower about to fall, crumbling under the weight…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Well, now I have you here… I can have you all to myself. No witnesses." The sword gleamed again in the darkness. In the suffocating blanket of the darkness. He took a swing at I, to which I darted backwards into a sharp counter, and Hunter deflecting the bow weakly with his own, his stance failing. Looking at my hand, I noticed a shard of blood crawling down my palm. I had nothing. No weapon… emThink./em/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wow, Hunter! You really are shite. You can't even wield a sword." He swung his cocky atmosphere around the room ten times over, and I could feel my wrenching gut spewing hatred upon him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Shut up, Tugna." Hunter replied through gritted teeth, trying to mirror our enemy's stance./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You never belonged here, Hunter, I'm afraid. After your stupid 'boyfriend' died, Cebri only kept you 'cus you were good at gathering food for us. You meant nothing to us; just a blank silhouette. A tool in our thriving village." His black hair shimmered in the thin light, and I was only just prying myself from the now bloody countertop, groaning silently./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You take that back, asshole!" Hunter struck. Tugna sprained the archer's wrist as he came into attack, making a clunking metal sound as he dropped his sword against his will, shrieking in pain. Tugna laughed like the point of a knide, words stabbing the air in a sinister manner./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Ooh, we got him biting!" he said, teeth glinting. "You know, that's surprising, actually – isn't it, Dandelion? He spends so much time in his little 'quiet state' that it's relieving to finally hear him squirm. You know, I think I'll gut you, myself. It'll prove much more satisfying!"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Back off." I shouted from a few paces from the two of them. Now walking towards the slim figure, I began to smell his tainted breath, hammering my nostrils, bludgeoning my face with gruesome warmth. "I said, back off." My eyes locked with his until he looked away, balancing the end of his sword on his shoulder./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, this is fantastic! The mouse has come out to play."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'm not scared of you, Tugna." I was, but I couldn't show it. Hopefully, he didn't see my heart jumping out of my chest, through my crimson apparel./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Really? Try this." He shot pain through my stomach. He punched my side with the blunt of his sword before I could blink. Rolling on the floor in agony, my vision blurred. I received another hit in the throat. "Go on, Dandelion, tell us: are you afraid now?" I gurgled at his feet. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Speak up, lad!" I'm going to kill him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Let's cut to the point, shall we?" Tugna continued, "Dandelion, you cannot even wield a sword. When I saw you with your little friend a few days back, I was fairly disappointed actually. How can one who cannot even defend himself for shit, manage to make it this far in this world?" We both watched him wave his weapon, both defenceless. Finally, he stopped further down the room, blocking the only light perfectly and casting a shadow on us. "Then I realised, you don't need one. Dandelion, you speak words as squeaky and annoying as a pesky little dormouse, that it feels almost like a dagger in the ears, you know?" He laughed again before glaring at Hunter beside me. "I've been thinking of that one all day. Did you like it? He doesn't even need a sword because his little, barely audible catastrophe of a sound acts as one! Do you… do you get it?" Hunter didn't reply, only stared at him with eyes of fire, my throat still burning. His smile wiped away. "You don't get it do you? You don't get the joke?" His cynical expression morphed from happy to dark. His mocking tone turned to seriousness. His laughter dissolved to growling. "Well then, let's get started." Tapping his sword on the ground, he started chanting, flicking from me to Hunter, then back again. He was picking one of us. The finger landed on Hunter./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Hunter! Now, should I start with the stomach, or the kneecap? What a choice…" I blinked, and when I opened my eyelids, I noticed a steel glint piercing Tugna's throat. The steel dissolved to a thick red, blood spurting out, gurgling as he tried to speak. Clutching the blade, Hunter and I stared at each other, both surprised. As he fell, another dark figure emerged behind him, plucking the sword from the corpse. This figure was shorter… Much shorter…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Aye, aye. Let's shut your wee trap once and for all." As he emerged from the shadows, Shor's hand offered to pick me up from the floor, with a big grin on his face./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What? How? How did you get in? We bolted the door." I stuttered, throat clearing./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, there's a wee side-door, matey. Did you not notice?" He pointed to a smaller door in the far corner of the room. We laughed all we could before we were reminded of the panic above us. We heard smashing from the stairwell. Bandits, coming in. The three of us stared at it. "We need to go, lads."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Suddenly, there was this loud roar. A roar that deafened us, coming from outside. It felt like it was coming from a mile away. It was a demonic, ear-splitting roar that shook the earth. Then screams. Lots of screams. Howls of men cutting the air, as if ripping their skin apart. The devilish outcry continued, like a spiritual presence had awakened. Like something dormant, which we had all forgotten about, but was now starting to wake up…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Dune./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"It was too exhausting. I had found out my friend's fate. I had watched a little, innocent girl die. I had missed death by a few moments. I had wounds and bruises over me. I had watched another gurgle as his blood dripped to the floor. All in a couple hours. Fatigue was weighing me down, yet I knew I could not stop. We still had a long way to go./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Breaching the stale air, we crouched through into the light. The sight… my God, the sight. Panicked civilians dissolved into stench-riddled corpses. The usual, florescent grass morphed from a saturated green to a melted, thick red. Flies in the air made it hard to see, and the sharp taste of the atmosphere blinded us. Instead of woman and children crying, a dark, nightmare-inducing howl of a man plagued the streets. On top of that, bursting doors and shattering windows emitted ear-piercing sounds from further down the paths. Bandits thrusting the points of their swords into the stomachs of men, guarding their family, and woman, protecting their children. It was horror. Still, many people trampled over the existing bodies, escaping the threat, holding little ones who cried and cried, or packages of items, or just their skirt as they hobbled over the uneven ground only to be slaughtered moments later. We stood in the middle of an abundance of running, scared objects, panicked that we'd also fall by a sword any moment. We blended in well, however. It was almost like we were invisible amongst the chaos. Whilst others ran, we had our heads in the sky, trying to locate the sound of the deafening roar. Then I saw it./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"In the direction of the small alter-building, a black smoke denied the law of physics, and rose up into the sky, plaguing the blue into a dark, liquid black – and it was spreading. Moving, towards us. Towards the town. Thick, black essence from up to a mile away, moving like Nekkers towards this chaos. It was far, but it was rapid. Too rapid./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Hunter." I called. For once, I unlocked my eyes from the event, and darted them around me. A blur of people. Shor and Hunter were nowhere to be seen. I was knocked to the ground by a woman, and as I stared back up at her, her tunic was breached by a thin, spiking dagger thrown from elsewhere. Her body flunked to the ground, the majority of it over myself. I was being buried by bodies, and trampled by panicked feet. emI needed to get up./em/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Wrenching myself from the sticky, grasping ground, I searched once more, calling for Hunter. Nothing. They were lost within the crowds of people./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"And that was when I saw Cebri from within her headquarters building, staring out the window, trying to hide. Her door intact, her safe haven untampered with. We met gazes for a moment. I made my move./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"The door was unlocked, surprisingly. Slowly limping in, and closing the door behind me – muffling the chaos, I stared through the muck and the dust. This tiny office, depressed and empty. Dim, full of unbreathable contents, as if no air had entered in years. In the corner, this poor old woman, held a dagger in my direction. Cebri, who accused me of things I had not committed out of spite, tried to kill me in front of everybody, and now defending herself against a tired bard who can't wield a sword to save his life, and who only wanted away from this place. The silence stung the air./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Cebri." I sighed, moving slowly towards her low body. She leaned on a chair, weak from a leg wound, blood contaminating her clothes. "Let me help you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Get away from me." She spurted, waving her dagger once more, moving the airy dust. She had blood on her forehead, and in her grey, ancient hair. Her figure a creaking house./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I can help you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Look at the mess you've made here!" Her voice breached the whisper of the room. "If it weren't for you, everything would've been fine! Look… look what you've done." This was an innocent woman who only wanted to do the best for her townsfolk, but I could see it in her eyes; she was afraid of me. I had a sword latched to my belt, given to me from Hunter earlier, but it remained there. My hands were held in the Please, Cebri – I mean no harm. /em"You… you should have died."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I know you don't mean that. Cebri, put the weapon down. I don't want to hurt you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""No!" She screamed./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"That was when the door flung off its hinges and into the wall on the other side, leaving a heavy imprint. The muffled sounds of death became vivid once more, and light struck the room. My heart was in my throat. Nobody with normal human strength could do that. Black smoke filled the floor, sliding like a snake into the room. We both stepped back, afraid. Heartbeats in our throats, we watched as Dune walked in, calmly and rhythmically – his steps equally hitting the wood, with no deviation./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Cebri screamed as her ears and eyes and nostrils flooded with the darkness, with the smoke. Her dagger thumped the wood by her feet and she was ripping her hair out, screaming and screaming like bees crawling over her skin. The black smoke covered her facial features, her eyes blackening, tangling her feet and bringing her to the ground. I watched in horror as Dune's demonic essence plucked her to the ground, death bringing her peace until she screamed no more./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, my god." Dune. He stood by the archway where the door used to be, and he glared at me with black, lifeless eyes. He wore the same clothes as the last time I saw him, days ago – as if his corpse was dug out of the ground and revived. I saw the bloodstain where I stabbed him, but this time it wasn't red. It was a black, thick oily liquid. He was the one who cast the scream. His teeth were black, and the smoke poured from him rapidly. That wasn't my friend in there. It was something different. Something possessive./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Dune, you need to listen to me." He didn't reply. "Dune, please. I know you're in there. Whatever they've done to you, y- you can fight it." No response. Instead, he took steps closer to me, suffocating me. "Remember when we first met, eh? When you saved me. I was tied up in that bloodied room like an idiot? Like- like a damsel in distress?" I chuckled slightly. His lips were stone. "Please, my friend." Tears plucked themselves from my eyes, my voice wavering. "What about when I fell down that trap into that Nekker den, and I thought you left me, but then you came back to save me with your friends? That was impressive." He took more steps towards me, and his face was only a few inches away from mine. His head shaking slightly, his eyes determined, eyelids flickering. Something was fighting within him. "Come on, my friend."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"His strong, rock-solid hand breached my throat. I couldn't breathe. His arm suffocated my stomach, lifting me off the ground./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Stab me, Dandelion." I heard him say- figments from my memory back in the woods. I remember him saying it, and somehow, I felt it was relevant. Like he was talking to me now through memories. "Fight your side, else you'll fall. Do you understand?"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"My vision blurred. I was running out of breath. I squeezed a few words from my thin remainder of my throat. "I'm sorry."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"I inserted my sword into his side. He spat black liquid. He coughed smoke. His eyes dilated until there was nothing but white. He liberated me, and he fell to the ground, leaving an abyss of dark blood on my sword. The smoke around him cleared, and eventually, his body stopped quavering, until it was still once more. I was left with a sword in my hands, struggling for breath, and tremoring with fear. Two corpses lie by my feet, and my face was full of panicked tears. I stood there like a stump, my weapon still pointed at Dune's body. I had killed it. I had killed him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"It was quiet outside. It was like the storm had passed. Bodies covered the floor, but it was only that. Bodies. The bandits were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they left, I'm not sure. No, of course they wouldn't leave. We had won. With red, upset and tired eyes, I crawled across the ground. I saw Shor finishing off a bandit. Hunter, too. The crowds of people before had thinned, and only a few of the village's guards remained, battered and bloodied. We had defeated the storm. We did it. Somehow, in my gut, it'd felt like we had lost. Some died via Dune and whatever possessed him – God, Cebri. Poor woman. Some died at the edge of a sword. It was a battlefield. And so many, so many died. It was over. We heard birds, and the sunshine started to char the blood from all the bodies, creating a stench in the air. We heard trees rustling amongst the quiet. We had done it. It was over. The massacre had ended. And was it all my fault?/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wait." Shor struck the earth with his large, compressed dwarf-feet. Jogging up to us, he panted deeply as if he'd just ran around the continent twice. "I came to say goodbye." He held out his hand, and I took it gladly./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Thank you." I said sincerely. His bears rustled like the leaves off trees. He turned to Hunter./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""And you, stay safe my man!"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Thanks, Shor." I never knew how they did it, dwarves. Despite negativity in life, they always managed to quench a joyous feeling about their speech. Hunter and I left the gates, and I stared back at the village once more./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wait. There's somewhere I need to go first."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Opening from pressure, the floor started to rumble. Hunter waited outside the altar-building, and I descended with a thick breath; bracing my fear. Inside the room, it was a mess. Black stains on the cobblestone walls, broken glass from fallen – or thrown – capacity, and a blank table in the centre, with red instead of black marks./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"I saw movement in the corner, then a hood, and a tuft of white hair. The sorceress woman lie with a dagger in her chest./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'm… sorry." She spluttered, gasping for air. I said nothing. "He… he wouldn't have made it otherwise. He was fading, struggling to breathe, and I just did it. I didn't want to lose him. You know, that's my biggest fear. When I was younger, I tried to save my Dad after he had some Drowner accident, but I failed. Looks like I failed again." She trailed off, tears striking her eyes./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What was he?"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""It was a kind of necromancy for near-death individuals. It was meant to heal parts of his internal organs from the split of the dagger. It, instead, flooded his bloodstream, and that's when it started. I don't think I have a name for it; if you want, you can create one. I know your story, Dandelion, the friendly bard from Novigrad." Her voice darkened despite her puncture in her chest./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You sent Dune… that thing ravaging across the village. Do you even know what you've caused? I don't even know your name, and I'm afraid I don't need to. Goodbye."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I know it was you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What?" I turned back, halting my retreat./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Who stabbed Dune. I know it was you. I-" she struggled again, pressure compressing her lungs, losing air. "A wound that messy… had to be you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I don't know what you're talking about." I hid my guilty face, back turned to her./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wait, tell me. Was I right? Did you stab him? I need to know." I breathed in deeply, guilt filling my conscience. Pressing my forehead against the cold wall, the words were stripped from my lips. I couldn't say it. Turning back, she had taken her last breath. Her cold eyes stared into nowhere./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""There's a sight I like to see!" I shouted at Hunter just so he could hear me amongst the chimes of bells and the sharp waves of the sea. The ship was closing into the Novigrad ports. I was home./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I've never been to Novigrad myself, believe it or not." He smiled, adjusting the bow and quiver on his back./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Well, if you need a guide, you know where to find me!" I responded, unable to waver my eyes from the beautiful red buildings./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Er, I don't."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, never mind then."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'm afraid this is where I leave you." We walked on the port, then on the hard stone. People rushed around us, as per usual. He stared at me. "I'm headed to Velen, Dandelion. I have a… loose errand to attend to." I responded with depressed eyes./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""The first time we crossed paths, you tied me. Tell me, were you planning to slaughter us in the woods, then leave us under some leaves for people to find months to come?" He smiled./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'll leave that for you to decide. Write a poem!" He tapped the lute I held by my hand, carried all the way from Cebri's grasp across seas. "Farewell, mate."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"And there I was left to carry on about my day, watching him fade among the crowd. Every event that occurred over the last week had been cleansed, and it was like nothing had happened at all. My only scar I had to remember it by was the patchy spot on my right palm. And a connection to a close friend that had been broken too easily./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Please, can we just have a break?" Drops of exhaustion slid down my skin, slippery – and even worse in this heat. Dune stared back at me, gazing straight into my weak and feeble eyes as I continued to pant. I pushed my back into a tree stump, uncaring of any bugs that might crawl over me. If I'm lucky, they'll lick the sweat off me and cool me down quicker./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You need to learn how to use a sword, Dandelion." Dune replied. He picked up the fallen weapon and offered it to me like he was offering me his hand, wanting me to grab it and stand once more; another try. I refused, shutting my eyes. The sweet, calming darkness drew me in, sleep at last… "Well, snoring our heads off isn't going to help us get to civilisation!" Sleep rejected./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""We're in the middle of nowhere, Dune! We've just washed up on a beach after a shipwreck, and now we're a needle in a haystack." My legs were stiff. I yanked myself from the dirt-riddled ground and rested against the low-hanging branch. "I mean, look around us. Forest here, forest there! Forest as far as the eye can see. We are running out of food, of… of water, and you're having me do miniature sword duels 'because I need to learn how to use one'. Is it really the time?! Please tell me you have a plan." I was shouting. I was shouting at him. I ducked my head, drawing my eyelids once more. "I'm sorry." I felt his stare protruding through the back of my neck, splitting the skin like a cold dagger. The coldness of this dagger on my skin; a relief from the heat of this weather…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""No, I'm sorry." He replied, sheathing both his sword and mine into his belt. I wish I could just rip all my clothes off and just let it breathe. Forest life wasn't for me, I suppose. He was half naked. No wonder he found this exercise easy. He wore no shirt, his skin respiring, and no drops of liquid shining from his back, or his arms, or his breasts, yet it felt like we'd been doing this for hours… "Listen, Dandelion, we're going to be fine, alright? I got you out of it before, and I'll help you again." He pat me on the back, his black beard shimmering amongst the newly-arrived wind, ducking and diving through tree-trunks and tall strands of grass. Heaven to my face. I felt replenished once more, drinking in the breeze… "One more?" He held the sword up. I grasped it./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Alright, alright. I'm done now." I dropped the sword. Another hour had passed, probably. The sun was setting, emitting a golden, juicy glow upon us and the wildlife. It was glorious and peaceful, yet even I knew we had to find shelter before it got dark. He sheathed his also, finally agreeing with me. I thought I saw a reflection on his tired brow, but he turned too quickly./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""We'll keep going for now. We'll reach something eventually."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I hope so. What I would do for some water…"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Listen, Dandelion," He has a habit of saying that, "regardless, sword or not, the message I'm trying to get across to you – is to not give up. Fight your side, else you'll fall. Do you understand?" he turned again, looking at me for a response. I stared back nodding. That was before his once bright and joyous eyes slid into a deafening black, a menacing black liquid flooding his sockets. Like possession. Then I was dragged from my thoughts./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"The little girl and I stood hopelessly on the gallows, wind smacking the air from our terrified lungs. I wobbled on the unusually small stool; The only thing keeping me alive whilst the rope tugged at my neck. Hunter stood petrified below, almost camouflaged in the crowd of people in front of us, awaiting our execution. Looking through tears, Tugna smirked from a distance, his cocky stride sending his message; crystal clear. I was angry. He wrenched my guts… He smiled in my face from across the crowd, as if saying "That's right, I've finally beaten you." I hadn't even known him that long, but his young and simple brain of his still wanted me dead. Shor was there too, and was one of the few who actually looked afraid. As well as Hunter, Shor wanted to get up here and save me from my fate. He peered from his blacksmith area with his short, tiny legs of his dwarf-structured body, and he feared for my life. I cast him a weak smile, more tears returning. I had lost Dune. I had lost everything. I turned. Finally, Cebri./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""For the trespass of village property." Her words stung like a striking sword, her wrinkles and grey hair moving in the wind. Frankly, she can go fuck herself. "For the assault of a peaceful woman of our community." The little girl beside me, bless her. She was terrified. She meant no harm. "And for the discovery of a personal enquiry regarding another citizen, and one of our medical staff." Bullshit, woman. The white-haired woman has left some demonic presence inside his body; God knows what him – or the thing inside him – will do now. She moved on to the girl now, listing her crimes like boxes on a checklist./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I sentence you to death." Words stinging, tanging like sour blood. The faceless, masked man kicked her stool, and the little girl choked, body flinging until it stopped once more. Death ushering her to a peaceful place… "Now, the bard." Her eyes. Her vicious eyes pointed at me, and the brute of the man behind me put his boot on my stool. I closed my eyes…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Bandits!" Someone screamed, jolting me like lightning. I daren't open my eyes. Was this a dream? Was I dying? Was this burst or jolt just the noose cracking my neck? No. Looking left: panic. Bashing on the unstable gates were hundreds of bandits. Hundreds. Trying to get through, their faces sharper than their wielded swords, they shattered the ground with their roar. For the first time in a century, people's spiking glares were off me. Instead, on the havoc at the entrance, before spreading like a plague upon the town, screaming; cracking my eardrums. This was panic like I've never seen it before. This was emterror/em. Up to this point, Cebri's people have been guarded and secure. Now, this was true terror. People whizzed about, not in jolly or passivity, but for their safety. Somehow, my stool had not been pushed, and I was stood here struck to the bone, helpless to the invasion. Bound and noosed./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Hunter. Thank fuck. He slipped from his detainer (who had lost interest and ran for the nearest building – honestly, this security has gone tits-up) and grabbed the nearest sword. From the belt of a guard, I think. It was hard to tell amongst the storm of people. He went straight to me. Behind me, in fact. So many around us, yet all of them ignoring us, hidden in plain sight. Did I just cheat death?/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Thank Melitele. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you." My profusions of thanks were as frequent as his stabs to the ropes that bound my wrists./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""We need to get out of here." He replied in panic, "This is not over." For the first time, I saw him panic. Ever since, he always looked like he had a plan. Currently, the sword he was cutting with was shaking, almost toppling me over the edge into death regardless. He was shaking amidst all of this. My heartbeat matched the thumps of the gate, and the cracking of the wood. We didn't have enough time…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What are we going to do?" I stuttered weakly, frozen to the spot, trembling and eyeing the progressive destruction of the enforcements./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""All that we can to get out of this mess." It was a race. A race on ice in a fog of smoke and mirrors. A race between the cutting of the rope and the gates. Who would be first? My life – everyone's lives – were at the tip of a shard./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I do hope so! Sometime soon, please?" I failed to pry a chuckle. Usually I was good at that: making light of a situation. Not now./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Listen to me," he was knocked to the floor and off the raised platform and into the blizzard of fear. A guard. Shit. I was powerless. Come on, he was almost through. I felt the strings of the cut rope, but I was still emjust /embound. I swore profusely. A guard tumbled atop Hunter, reaching for his sword to thrust up his throat. Suddenly, the glint of his sword exited the attacker's back, before the warm corpse slid off the end of it and onto the mud, creating a space for civilian's to trip over and fall to their demise. Now bloodied, Hunter's sword continued at my bounds, before that final tug liberated me. As swift as possible, I undid the rope around my neck and toppled down the stool, falling to the wood. My legs floundered, shock paralysing me./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh my goodness, are you alright?" I asked him, face tainted with bruises./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Yes, yes." And that's when the gates collapsed./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"There were hundreds of them. I swear there were. Blurs of bandits, multiplied and multiplied again, wielding sharp steel and shields, roaring and sprinting. Straight for the people of the village. Straight for us. Screams were deafened by the thunderous footsteps of leather against hard ground. This was it./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Run."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"He helped me. He helped me up and I lie on his shoulder, clambering from the platform. After, I let him go, confident on my own two feet and shielding my eyes from the running people. Everything that happened felt like an eternity, yet it was only a few seconds. Civilians melted to oozing corpses as the hostilities spread like water through the village. Horror at its purest. Dry in my mouth, lips cracked and white but not from thirst; from dread. We ran through the downpour. Both of us, I following him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Here, Dandelion. Here!" He ushered me to an arch-shaped wooden door, letting me duck inside into the darkness before him, latching the steel bolt behind him. We plunged into the abyss. Down the steps and onto the marble. It took me a few seconds to realise where I was, but my sense of smell noticed before my eyes. The medical lab. The what-should-be a clean hospital of a large, open space quickly became tainted with a shadowy, bloodied, murky basement full of death and absence. How long had it been like this? How long had this whole place turned to shit? Hunter retreated down the steps behind me, and I saw a figure in the room, blocking out the already slim flow of light from a nearby, high window./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Well, hello there."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Tugna./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""It's thoroughly nice to see you again." He croaked calmly, flicking his glinting sword between his palms, warming them for what was to come. Hunter drew his, yet I could see from his eyes that he wasn't comfortable using a sword./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I can't say the same to you." I replied, trying to cover my fear – the curse of a high-pitched, whiny voice, coming to haunt me again in the most important of times. I stood my ground, legs shaking like a tower about to fall, crumbling under the weight…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Well, now I have you here… I can have you all to myself. No witnesses." The sword gleamed again in the darkness. In the suffocating blanket of the darkness. He took a swing at I, to which I darted backwards into a sharp counter, and Hunter deflecting the bow weakly with his own, his stance failing. Looking at my hand, I noticed a shard of blood crawling down my palm. I had nothing. No weapon… emThink./em/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wow, Hunter! You really are shite. You can't even wield a sword." He swung his cocky atmosphere around the room ten times over, and I could feel my wrenching gut spewing hatred upon him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Shut up, Tugna." Hunter replied through gritted teeth, trying to mirror our enemy's stance./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You never belonged here, Hunter, I'm afraid. After your stupid 'boyfriend' died, Cebri only kept you 'cus you were good at gathering food for us. You meant nothing to us; just a blank silhouette. A tool in our thriving village." His black hair shimmered in the thin light, and I was only just prying myself from the now bloody countertop, groaning silently./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You take that back, asshole!" Hunter struck. Tugna sprained the archer's wrist as he came into attack, making a clunking metal sound as he dropped his sword against his will, shrieking in pain. Tugna laughed like the point of a knide, words stabbing the air in a sinister manner./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Ooh, we got him biting!" he said, teeth glinting. "You know, that's surprising, actually – isn't it, Dandelion? He spends so much time in his little 'quiet state' that it's relieving to finally hear him squirm. You know, I think I'll gut you, myself. It'll prove much more satisfying!"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Back off." I shouted from a few paces from the two of them. Now walking towards the slim figure, I began to smell his tainted breath, hammering my nostrils, bludgeoning my face with gruesome warmth. "I said, back off." My eyes locked with his until he looked away, balancing the end of his sword on his shoulder./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, this is fantastic! The mouse has come out to play."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'm not scared of you, Tugna." I was, but I couldn't show it. Hopefully, he didn't see my heart jumping out of my chest, through my crimson apparel./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Really? Try this." He shot pain through my stomach. He punched my side with the blunt of his sword before I could blink. Rolling on the floor in agony, my vision blurred. I received another hit in the throat. "Go on, Dandelion, tell us: are you afraid now?" I gurgled at his feet. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Speak up, lad!" I'm going to kill him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Let's cut to the point, shall we?" Tugna continued, "Dandelion, you cannot even wield a sword. When I saw you with your little friend a few days back, I was fairly disappointed actually. How can one who cannot even defend himself for shit, manage to make it this far in this world?" We both watched him wave his weapon, both defenceless. Finally, he stopped further down the room, blocking the only light perfectly and casting a shadow on us. "Then I realised, you don't need one. Dandelion, you speak words as squeaky and annoying as a pesky little dormouse, that it feels almost like a dagger in the ears, you know?" He laughed again before glaring at Hunter beside me. "I've been thinking of that one all day. Did you like it? He doesn't even need a sword because his little, barely audible catastrophe of a sound acts as one! Do you… do you get it?" Hunter didn't reply, only stared at him with eyes of fire, my throat still burning. His smile wiped away. "You don't get it do you? You don't get the joke?" His cynical expression morphed from happy to dark. His mocking tone turned to seriousness. His laughter dissolved to growling. "Well then, let's get started." Tapping his sword on the ground, he started chanting, flicking from me to Hunter, then back again. He was picking one of us. The finger landed on Hunter./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Hunter! Now, should I start with the stomach, or the kneecap? What a choice…" I blinked, and when I opened my eyelids, I noticed a steel glint piercing Tugna's throat. The steel dissolved to a thick red, blood spurting out, gurgling as he tried to speak. Clutching the blade, Hunter and I stared at each other, both surprised. As he fell, another dark figure emerged behind him, plucking the sword from the corpse. This figure was shorter… Much shorter…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Aye, aye. Let's shut your wee trap once and for all." As he emerged from the shadows, Shor's hand offered to pick me up from the floor, with a big grin on his face./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What? How? How did you get in? We bolted the door." I stuttered, throat clearing./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, there's a wee side-door, matey. Did you not notice?" He pointed to a smaller door in the far corner of the room. We laughed all we could before we were reminded of the panic above us. We heard smashing from the stairwell. Bandits, coming in. The three of us stared at it. "We need to go, lads."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Suddenly, there was this loud roar. A roar that deafened us, coming from outside. It felt like it was coming from a mile away. It was a demonic, ear-splitting roar that shook the earth. Then screams. Lots of screams. Howls of men cutting the air, as if ripping their skin apart. The devilish outcry continued, like a spiritual presence had awakened. Like something dormant, which we had all forgotten about, but was now starting to wake up…/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Dune./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"It was too exhausting. I had found out my friend's fate. I had watched a little, innocent girl die. I had missed death by a few moments. I had wounds and bruises over me. I had watched another gurgle as his blood dripped to the floor. All in a couple hours. Fatigue was weighing me down, yet I knew I could not stop. We still had a long way to go./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Breaching the stale air, we crouched through into the light. The sight… my God, the sight. Panicked civilians dissolved into stench-riddled corpses. The usual, florescent grass morphed from a saturated green to a melted, thick red. Flies in the air made it hard to see, and the sharp taste of the atmosphere blinded us. Instead of woman and children crying, a dark, nightmare-inducing howl of a man plagued the streets. On top of that, bursting doors and shattering windows emitted ear-piercing sounds from further down the paths. Bandits thrusting the points of their swords into the stomachs of men, guarding their family, and woman, protecting their children. It was horror. Still, many people trampled over the existing bodies, escaping the threat, holding little ones who cried and cried, or packages of items, or just their skirt as they hobbled over the uneven ground only to be slaughtered moments later. We stood in the middle of an abundance of running, scared objects, panicked that we'd also fall by a sword any moment. We blended in well, however. It was almost like we were invisible amongst the chaos. Whilst others ran, we had our heads in the sky, trying to locate the sound of the deafening roar. Then I saw it./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"In the direction of the small alter-building, a black smoke denied the law of physics, and rose up into the sky, plaguing the blue into a dark, liquid black – and it was spreading. Moving, towards us. Towards the town. Thick, black essence from up to a mile away, moving like Nekkers towards this chaos. It was far, but it was rapid. Too rapid./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Hunter." I called. For once, I unlocked my eyes from the event, and darted them around me. A blur of people. Shor and Hunter were nowhere to be seen. I was knocked to the ground by a woman, and as I stared back up at her, her tunic was breached by a thin, spiking dagger thrown from elsewhere. Her body flunked to the ground, the majority of it over myself. I was being buried by bodies, and trampled by panicked feet. emI needed to get up./em/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Wrenching myself from the sticky, grasping ground, I searched once more, calling for Hunter. Nothing. They were lost within the crowds of people./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"And that was when I saw Cebri from within her headquarters building, staring out the window, trying to hide. Her door intact, her safe haven untampered with. We met gazes for a moment. I made my move./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"The door was unlocked, surprisingly. Slowly limping in, and closing the door behind me – muffling the chaos, I stared through the muck and the dust. This tiny office, depressed and empty. Dim, full of unbreathable contents, as if no air had entered in years. In the corner, this poor old woman, held a dagger in my direction. Cebri, who accused me of things I had not committed out of spite, tried to kill me in front of everybody, and now defending herself against a tired bard who can't wield a sword to save his life, and who only wanted away from this place. The silence stung the air./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Cebri." I sighed, moving slowly towards her low body. She leaned on a chair, weak from a leg wound, blood contaminating her clothes. "Let me help you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Get away from me." She spurted, waving her dagger once more, moving the airy dust. She had blood on her forehead, and in her grey, ancient hair. Her figure a creaking house./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I can help you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Look at the mess you've made here!" Her voice breached the whisper of the room. "If it weren't for you, everything would've been fine! Look… look what you've done." This was an innocent woman who only wanted to do the best for her townsfolk, but I could see it in her eyes; she was afraid of me. I had a sword latched to my belt, given to me from Hunter earlier, but it remained there. My hands were held in the Please, Cebri – I mean no harm. /em"You… you should have died."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I know you don't mean that. Cebri, put the weapon down. I don't want to hurt you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""No!" She screamed./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"That was when the door flung off its hinges and into the wall on the other side, leaving a heavy imprint. The muffled sounds of death became vivid once more, and light struck the room. My heart was in my throat. Nobody with normal human strength could do that. Black smoke filled the floor, sliding like a snake into the room. We both stepped back, afraid. Heartbeats in our throats, we watched as Dune walked in, calmly and rhythmically – his steps equally hitting the wood, with no deviation./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Cebri screamed as her ears and eyes and nostrils flooded with the darkness, with the smoke. Her dagger thumped the wood by her feet and she was ripping her hair out, screaming and screaming like bees crawling over her skin. The black smoke covered her facial features, her eyes blackening, tangling her feet and bringing her to the ground. I watched in horror as Dune's demonic essence plucked her to the ground, death bringing her peace until she screamed no more./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, my god." Dune. He stood by the archway where the door used to be, and he glared at me with black, lifeless eyes. He wore the same clothes as the last time I saw him, days ago – as if his corpse was dug out of the ground and revived. I saw the bloodstain where I stabbed him, but this time it wasn't red. It was a black, thick oily liquid. He was the one who cast the scream. His teeth were black, and the smoke poured from him rapidly. That wasn't my friend in there. It was something different. Something possessive./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Dune, you need to listen to me." He didn't reply. "Dune, please. I know you're in there. Whatever they've done to you, y- you can fight it." No response. Instead, he took steps closer to me, suffocating me. "Remember when we first met, eh? When you saved me. I was tied up in that bloodied room like an idiot? Like- like a damsel in distress?" I chuckled slightly. His lips were stone. "Please, my friend." Tears plucked themselves from my eyes, my voice wavering. "What about when I fell down that trap into that Nekker den, and I thought you left me, but then you came back to save me with your friends? That was impressive." He took more steps towards me, and his face was only a few inches away from mine. His head shaking slightly, his eyes determined, eyelids flickering. Something was fighting within him. "Come on, my friend."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"His strong, rock-solid hand breached my throat. I couldn't breathe. His arm suffocated my stomach, lifting me off the ground./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Stab me, Dandelion." I heard him say- figments from my memory back in the woods. I remember him saying it, and somehow, I felt it was relevant. Like he was talking to me now through memories. "Fight your side, else you'll fall. Do you understand?"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"My vision blurred. I was running out of breath. I squeezed a few words from my thin remainder of my throat. "I'm sorry."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"I inserted my sword into his side. He spat black liquid. He coughed smoke. His eyes dilated until there was nothing but white. He liberated me, and he fell to the ground, leaving an abyss of dark blood on my sword. The smoke around him cleared, and eventually, his body stopped quavering, until it was still once more. I was left with a sword in my hands, struggling for breath, and tremoring with fear. Two corpses lie by my feet, and my face was full of panicked tears. I stood there like a stump, my weapon still pointed at Dune's body. I had killed it. I had killed him./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"It was quiet outside. It was like the storm had passed. Bodies covered the floor, but it was only that. Bodies. The bandits were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they left, I'm not sure. No, of course they wouldn't leave. We had won. With red, upset and tired eyes, I crawled across the ground. I saw Shor finishing off a bandit. Hunter, too. The crowds of people before had thinned, and only a few of the village's guards remained, battered and bloodied. We had defeated the storm. We did it. Somehow, in my gut, it'd felt like we had lost. Some died via Dune and whatever possessed him – God, Cebri. Poor woman. Some died at the edge of a sword. It was a battlefield. And so many, so many died. It was over. We heard birds, and the sunshine started to char the blood from all the bodies, creating a stench in the air. We heard trees rustling amongst the quiet. We had done it. It was over. The massacre had ended. And was it all my fault?/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wait." Shor struck the earth with his large, compressed dwarf-feet. Jogging up to us, he panted deeply as if he'd just ran around the continent twice. "I came to say goodbye." He held out his hand, and I took it gladly./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Thank you." I said sincerely. His bears rustled like the leaves off trees. He turned to Hunter./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""And you, stay safe my man!"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Thanks, Shor." I never knew how they did it, dwarves. Despite negativity in life, they always managed to quench a joyous feeling about their speech. Hunter and I left the gates, and I stared back at the village once more./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wait. There's somewhere I need to go first."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"Opening from pressure, the floor started to rumble. Hunter waited outside the altar-building, and I descended with a thick breath; bracing my fear. Inside the room, it was a mess. Black stains on the cobblestone walls, broken glass from fallen – or thrown – capacity, and a blank table in the centre, with red instead of black marks./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"I saw movement in the corner, then a hood, and a tuft of white hair. The sorceress woman lie with a dagger in her chest./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'm… sorry." She spluttered, gasping for air. I said nothing. "He… he wouldn't have made it otherwise. He was fading, struggling to breathe, and I just did it. I didn't want to lose him. You know, that's my biggest fear. When I was younger, I tried to save my Dad after he had some Drowner accident, but I failed. Looks like I failed again." She trailed off, tears striking her eyes./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What was he?"/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""It was a kind of necromancy for near-death individuals. It was meant to heal parts of his internal organs from the split of the dagger. It, instead, flooded his bloodstream, and that's when it started. I don't think I have a name for it; if you want, you can create one. I know your story, Dandelion, the friendly bard from Novigrad." Her voice darkened despite her puncture in her chest./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""You sent Dune… that thing ravaging across the village. Do you even know what you've caused? I don't even know your name, and I'm afraid I don't need to. Goodbye."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I know it was you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""What?" I turned back, halting my retreat./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Who stabbed Dune. I know it was you. I-" she struggled again, pressure compressing her lungs, losing air. "A wound that messy… had to be you."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I don't know what you're talking about." I hid my guilty face, back turned to her./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Wait, tell me. Was I right? Did you stab him? I need to know." I breathed in deeply, guilt filling my conscience. Pressing my forehead against the cold wall, the words were stripped from my lips. I couldn't say it. Turning back, she had taken her last breath. Her cold eyes stared into nowhere./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"***/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""There's a sight I like to see!" I shouted at Hunter just so he could hear me amongst the chimes of bells and the sharp waves of the sea. The ship was closing into the Novigrad ports. I was home./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I've never been to Novigrad myself, believe it or not." He smiled, adjusting the bow and quiver on his back./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Well, if you need a guide, you know where to find me!" I responded, unable to waver my eyes from the beautiful red buildings./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Er, I don't."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""Oh, never mind then."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'm afraid this is where I leave you." We walked on the port, then on the hard stone. People rushed around us, as per usual. He stared at me. "I'm headed to Velen, Dandelion. I have a… loose errand to attend to." I responded with depressed eyes./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""The first time we crossed paths, you tied me. Tell me, were you planning to slaughter us in the woods, then leave us under some leaves for people to find months to come?" He smiled./p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;""I'll leave that for you to decide. Write a poem!" He tapped the lute I held by my hand, carried all the way from Cebri's grasp across seas. "Farewell, mate."/p
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444; font-size: 15px;"And there I was left to carry on about my day, watching him fade among the crowd. Every event that occurred over the last week had been cleansed, and it was like nothing had happened at all. My only scar I had to remember it by was the patchy spot on my right palm. And a connection to a close friend that had been broken too easily./p
