Warriors Hearth Chp21
No matter what way you looked at her, you could tell Tsukasa struggled to keep up. Riding endlessly along the rolling Rubinilian plains on horseback for hours upon hours certainly did not help either. The rest of the girls noticed and tried to slow down and ease up for the sake of Tsukasa but she always seemed to fall short.
"Are you absolutely sure you can keep going?" Kagami would ask frequently while Konata and Miyuki would look with concerned faces.
"I'm fine Onee-chan, just a little tired." Tsukasa would always respond.
But after endless worry and struggle, the border to Hotra, the kingdom next to Badrun, finally came into view. Unlike Badrun which had high walls the height of two men on top of each other, Hotra trusted the border with a large bog that covered a large percentage of the border to Laciena. There were only a few solid entrances that were accessible and stationed guards at these borders. The guardhouse could possibly have been mistaken for a commoners home if it were not stationed right at the border.
The first thing the girls noticed wrong with the guardhouse was the lack of guards outside.
Although it was possible that all of the guards on duty may have gone inside at the same time but there was usually at least one man on watch no matter what kingdom.
As the girls approached closer, kagami noticed another thing wrong with the guardhouse.
Blood.
There were great stains of large blackening dried blood on the walls and even some from the inside on the windows. To say there was a struggle would be an understatement.
"Uhh... What happened here?" Konata asked as they approached even closer, close enough to see the individual shapes of the dried blood.
"We're all wondering the same thing, don't worry." Kagami assured.
"I think we should check it out..." Miyuki suggested.
Konata then jumped off her horse while asking Tsukasa if she could keep watch of the horses for a bit. Tsukasa nodded as Kagami and Miyuki got off as well and handed the reigns to Tsukasa. All three girls on foot drew their weapons as they walked towards the guardhouse. A few swords lay on the ground, hidden by the unkept grass. All of them covered in blood stains.
"Looks like someone came around on a rampage..." Konata remarked as she poked a helmet with her shortsword.
"Come on let's go inside and see what's wrong." Kagami said as she walked to the door, her longsword in hand while she kept her two-hander sword on her back.
The three girls, after checking to see Tsukasa was alright, stood by the door cautiously. Miyuki drew her bow and aimed at the door as konata stood outside it with her swortsword in hand. Kagami then put her hand on the door and slowly turned the knob and pushed the door inwards. From inside the room came a gut wrenching smell, the sickly smell of rotting bodies.
All three girls instictively covered their noses and mouths with a hand while miyuki did so with her arm. The guardhouse seemed to have only one large room as the room didn't have anythkng except a few large tables and chairs and the room itself seemed to be the size of the house. Konata quickly dashed in and crouched behind a upturned desk while kagami followed suit. Lastly miyuki slowly walked in, her bow still drawn.
"I was pretty sure but the place is deserted except for the bodies and decomposers..." Miyuki muttered as she eased the bow back to it's original position.
"I'm going to go check upstairs, there was blood on the windows on the second floor." Konata announced a she proceeded to look for the staircase leading upstairs. Kagami and Miyuki nodded as they started looking around the room, hoping to find some clue as to what had happened.
Konata walked to the back I the room to find a door, hidden mostly in shadows, and opened it. She looked into the dark room and figured there was probably nothing in there and proceeded in. As she felt around for the stairs, her sixth sense of danger felt another presence. She instantly stopped moving and dare not move a muscle. She strained her ears to hear any movement but the only thing she heard was Miyuki and Kagami walking around in the main room.
Finally after several minutes of ear straining, she decided to proceed slowly and try to get upstairs. As she found the stairs and starts climbing slowly, she felt the presence move slightly. Not towards her but...
Konata quickly drew one of her daggers and threw it at the ceiling direcly above her. She was answered by a shrill scream as a figure fell onto her. She quickly pushed it off up the stairs and quickly ran down the stairs again and opened the door, letting light filter in. As she opened the door, Kagami came stumbling in as she yelled out, "Konata!?"
"I'm fine, get a light in here." She ordered but Miyuki was a step ahead as she ran up to the door with a lamp in hand.
What lay midway up the stairs wasn't human, it certainly wasn't anything they had ever seen either. The thing twitched as the light fell upon it's bleak, open, dark eyes. The thing was about the size of a monkey and it even had a tail... In fact...
"D-Doesn't that look like a... monkey?!" Kagami stammered. Indeed the thing did look like a monkey except that it's skin was leathery and it seemed to have been... Deceased.
Konata quickly looked at the ceiling to see that it wasn't finished and still had wooden beams running across.
"No wonder it was above me..." Konata murmmered.
As the girls stared at the still twitching monkey-like thing, footsteps were heard above and everyone drew their weapons once more as Konata took the lamp. Miyuki drew her bow and aimed it at the top of the stairs as the door slowly creaked open.
"D-Dont hurt us, we're human!" a terrified young voice called out.
"Come out." Kagami yelled.
"T-Theres one more person inside." the male voice stammered.
"Get him out too." Konata ordered.
Two frail looking men with armor and pale faces with dark circles under their eyes slowly walked out with their hands outstretched to show they held nothing.
"What the heck happened to you guys?!" Kagami gasped as she saw the condition of the men. They looked thin like they had not eaten in a while. They also seemed to be paranoid with fear and it was obvious they had not slept any time soon. Their armor suggested they were two of the guards.
Suddenly one man broke down sobbing while the other patted him on the back.
The three girls lowered their weapons and Miyuki ran out to get Tsukasa and her medical supplies.
"You guys look like you just survived an onslaught of ghouls..." Konata said jokingly...
Suddenly both men looks up with fear in their eyes at the word 'ghoul'.
"Tell us what happened here... The guards, the blood, and that dead... Thing halfway up the stairs." Kagami asked.
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"Will he be alright Doc?" Naji asked worriedly as the petite doctor with pink hair looked over the famed Captain Hiroki. Hiroki had been taken to a special room reserved for any official or otherwise important people. The only people that had been allowed in had been Naji and Minami
"He has minor internal bleeding but amazingly, his ribs seem to be fine, even after what he endured from that chimera. Unfortunately he may or may not survive... The only way he can positively survive would be the implication of white magic but there are so few mages and yet even fewer who practice white magic..." the doctor informed, "We can attempt a surgery but with our limited supplies and our lack of any effective procedure, it would be a risk that should be avoided at all costs unless absolutely neccesary..."
"How long does he have?" Minami asked worriedly.
"Anywhere between 24 and 72 hours, it completely depends on how his body naturally recovers as well as the exact severety of the internal bleeding." the doctor answered.
"Minami, we need to find a white magician..." Naji urgently said.
"B-But that's gonna take a lot longer than 72 hours!" Minami stammered.
"Please Minami, even trying is good but I can't stand just stand around watching my best friend waiting to die, please." Naji asked. For the first time ever, Minami saw a weakness... No, not a weakness but a pleading man of strength.
"Yeah, we can't just sit around can we?" Minami finally replied.
"Umm... Now I think of it, I may know where a white Mage resides in Badrun..." the young doctor nervously said.
Both Naji and Minami looked at the doctor.
"W-Well it's technically not inside Badrun but it's not part of any other kingdom either... It just has a pro-Badrunian attitude that most people consider them badrunian."
"Go on..." Naji asked.
"The people call themselves the Mysidians... Mysidia is said to raise the most magicians and some of the best as well..." the pink haired girl continued.
"However the only way it would be possible to get there and back with enough time is to operate on Hiroki... Except there's the risk of making his condition even worse. The risk isn't as bad as trying to fix the problem but just delaying it is risky enough..." the girl finished.
"Do it." Naji replied at once, "Knowing Hiroki for nearly all my life, I know he would take a risky success at life then take a non-risky but an eventually guarenteed death." Naji said
The doctor looked at the two fighters in front of them and then at their fallen comrade. She knew she couldn't sit around and do nothing.
"Would you mind if I came along? There are a few paths to Mysidia most people don't know that will make things a lot easier." the doctor said.
"I guess... In that case what's your name? I don't think calling you doc is going to work." Minami chuckled.
"Yutaka, Yutaka Kobayakawa."
"Thanks Yutaka."
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"It happened a few nights ago... We really didn't know what was happening until too late." one if the guards, Tsuzan said.
"They came while we were all in bed so there had only been one man on duty while another two were inside so only three men were on active duty. In all there were two dozen men. The first thing we noticed was the screaming which woke us up." Dami, the other guard, continued.
"At first we thought they were screwing around because that particular shift had messed around their last shift. But soon the screaming intensified and all three started screaming horrendously." Tsuzan continued.
"We all got out of bed and some of us woke up the guards still asleep while the others grabbed their weapons and ran downstairs. Tsuzan and I were one of the guys waking up the rest of the dozen men." Dami sighed, "soon the screams got louder as the men who went downstairs started screaming as well."
Both men looked down at the floor and wiped their eyes.
"After we had gotten everyone up, the screaming had died down a bit as some finally shut up, we figured they had either taken control or had been put out of their misery. As we headed down the stairs, we saw the lead man get pulled forward when he reached the bottom steps... It was horrible... One second he was there and the next second, a hideous looking arm grabbed him." Tsuzan quietly said as he recalled the instant the hand had reached forward.
"We instantly knew that what we were facing wasn't a human. The next lead man jumped out with his sword drawn and slashed the thing that had reached forward... As we all filed out, in the darkness the things looked like a regular peasant... But there were animals as well but what really got our senses perking was the smell. it smelled like a morgue that had just seen a serial killer go around it..." Dami continued for his friend who sat still, "We soon slated both man and animal but we had also taken heavy casualties... Out of the two dozen men that had stood only fifteen minutes ago, only five stood. As we gathered casualties and disposed of the bodies, a man came out of the bogs."
"At first we thought it was a lost man who had stumbled into the bogs and miraculously emerged but soon we saw he had cult like clothes on, a dark robe and a hood. The man suddenly threw his hood off and shouted at us, 'The days of mortal reign will end today!' and he muttered something. Next thing we know, all the dead beings we had slated a minute ago stirred and about half of the slayed beings rose and starts for the remaining five of us. Two men were killed because we were so shocked that our reaction was sluggish. The remaining three retreated into the house and up the stairs where we barricaded ourselves in and tried to figure out what the hell was happening... The endless pounding on the doors and window drove the third man insane and he killed himself, his last word being 'I would rather die and join the souls in purgatory rather than endure their anger'. When day light came, the things all disapeared into the bog, we saw them shamble off into the bog through the window. It continued every night and happened again last night..." Tsuzan spoke again.
The three girls sat on the beds upstairs where all five people sat at the moment in deep silence. After their insistence on locking the door, they had sat down where Dami and Tsuzan proceeded to explain their state. Finally after a short silence, Konata spoke up, "So your blaming Necromancy?"
"What else could cause the dead bodies behind us to rise up?" Dami asked.
"But isn't necromancy a myth?" Kagami asked.
"Kagami, we've been out of Laciena for months, can't you get used to the idea that things that were impossible in Laciena might be possible outside?" Konata asked in exhasperation.
"Well if the undead return nightly, then we should head out as soon as we can, it's still noon so we can probably get to the nearest town in Hotra by night." Miyuki suggested.
The men both nodded and stood up. Kagami noticed as they stood up that the looks of paranoid fear had eased up on their faces and the dark circles seemed to lighten up after they had spoken to the girls. All five heads outside to where Tsukasa sat on the horses with the reigns in hand.
"Did you need the medical supplies?" Tsukasa asked as they walked towards her.
"Not really but it didn't hurt either." Miyuki replied.
"Can one of you ride horses?" Konata asked asteyreached the horses.
"Yea, I can." Dami said.
"You and Tsuzan share a horse, I'll ride with Kagami." Konata offered.
"Making up her mind without asking me?" Kagami sighed.
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Fukuya and patty stood in front of Minami, Naji and the doctor with hands on their hips while the group stood outside by the front gates of Fijinka.
"You could at least tell us you're going to be gone, we thought you two died and were searching the whole time." Fukuya pouted.
"In case you didn't get it, we weren't exactly in a position to stop and look for you two." Minami answered, "and also, the doctor here is coming with us."
"I understand but there were plenty of other soldiers, you in particular didn't need to go Minami." Fukuya continued arguing.
"Just drop it Fukuya." Patty sighed, "So we need to did a white Mage in Mysidia and Doc here can help us find one?"
"Well actually I know a White Mage in Mysidia, it's a long story..." Yutaka clariffied, "Yutaka Kobayakawa by the way."
"Well thanks for the help." Patty thanked.
"I know I may sound a bit selfish possibly but could we get a move on? Hiroki's going to be on borrowed time until we get that Mage here so..." Naji interupted.
"Alright alright, let's get going then." Fukuya laughed, "Off to Mysidia!!"
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Author: Sorry for the short ending, I just wanted the scene in which the group gathers and leaves for Mysidia, that way I can jump right into them going to Mysidia starting next chapter.
Konata: Mysidia sounds familiar...
Author: Probably cuz it's from Final Fantasy
Konata: Huh what's that?
Author: Uhh never mind.