Childhood Arc II: Morning Sun
"In your darkest hour, give thanks, for, in due time, the morning will come. And it will come with a ray of sunshine."
— Micheal Bassey Johnson
Nolani and the boys spent days playing games in the caravan as they traveled. She taught them how to play games she played as a child in her old life like I-Spy or finish the sentence. Some of the things the boys said were very funny and erotic. It seems their minds were always in the gutter and she loved it. Call it a way of coping with their situations.
Days turned into a couple of weeks.
When they stopped for bathroom breaks, she took a squat. The boys were embarrassed by this, but she wasn't. The witchers merely laughed it off upon seeing the boy's faces. Taking a squat was something she had done frequently as a teenager when she went hunting with her father. She was very modern compared to her boys and it's not like they could understand the world she grew up in. Nolani was a special case of incarnate crazy.
Of course, her dress covered her while she pissed— but she was too old to give any shits. Life was too short to worry about such things.
Among the other witchers, she was called a lunatic for her unladylike antics, but the elf had to remind them that she wasn't going to be a lady by becoming a witcher. So, it was good that she was adjusting to her new life. She rolled her eyes at the thought. As of now, they were a couple of hours from this hideout the witcher talked about, and there, they would begin the first trial of the grasses. Before that, there was a test to see if they were really up to becoming a witcher.
Determination sparked her interest because coin equaled a medical practice she could set up. Her entire reason for wanting to become a doctor was to heal the people who ended up like her father— dead. His death motivated her in the old life and now in the new. In this world, medical technology was limited, and that meant more sick people. Then she would fix that by becoming a witcher or whatever.
The caravan came to a halt in the dead of the night, near a forest. Their curtain was opened by a new witcher with long ashen grey hair with white highlights and a balding line across his forehead greeted them with a snarky smile. His yellow eyes landed on the sole female— "Oh, what do we have here?"
Aiden pushed her behind him.
The witcher laughed. "A protector now, huh? Well, you girly better toughen up if ya wanna survive what's about to come."
Nolani put a hand on Aiden's shoulder, giving him a reassuring squeeze.
The girl tilted her head. "What is about to come?"
Suddenly, Aiden had been pushed aside by the assailant and he grabbed her wrist, pulling her harshly out of the caravan. He was still holding her above the ground by her wrist, dangling her like a doll as she gleamed at her dirtied state. "Awe, did ya dress get dirty?"
His hand encircled her wrist like a viper. If something had changed her that night, it worked, because she really thought about killing this guy. She imagined biting his nasty hand off as she had done to her last attacker's neck. He was giving her a bemused glint in his eyes as if he expected a reaction. She let the pain on her wrist fuel her anger and channeled it into her next move. Slowly, her hand bent enough to scratch at his skin with her stubby nails. While he was growling at that, she maneuvered her legs to latch onto his arm. She ignored the way her dress exposed her undergarments and focused on the release he gave upon her wrist.
Now she was clenching his arm with her mouth near his wrist, mouth opening wide— "Hey! Behen, what the fuck are you doing?!"
She recognized that voice, Treyse.
What a lucky witcher.
The man came running with the elf behind him with a studying gaze on the scene.
"Kid, I wouldn't bite his wrinkled skin, you might get malaria," Treyse advised. "Brehen, the last guy she bit fucking died. I wouldn't advise messing with the girl I brought here to take the trials."
Nolani landed on the ground as her attacker shook her off harshly. "What is she a part vampire or some shit?!"
"Obviously not."
Aiden jumped off the caravan and helped his friend up. The reincarnate dug a glare into Brehen's eyes as he returned it with the same level of bite.
The red-haired half-elf held up five school of cat medallions. "Receive these, then go join the other candidates."
Nolani took hers, giving Brehen the middle finger behind her. The other's consisted of other children in their age range and two other girls. One was a young elf and the other human. Her boys followed her to them as they said their greetings. The elf girl, blonde hair, and bright blue eyes sent her a kind smile while the other gave her a skeptical look with her coal-black eyes that matched her ponytail.
"My name is Reva and that's Idalia," the elf girl said. "What's yours?"
"Nolani."
"What a pretty name."
"Thanks."
Aiden blushed upon seeing the blonde elf. "M-my name is Aiden."
"Did he just stutter?" Jad whispered to her.
"Yes, it's his way of saying hello to a pretty girl."
"Gotcha," he whispered back.
Idalia gave a curt nod before starring down at her medallion with unusual hesitation. Before Nolani opened her mouth to say something, something hit the back of her neck rather hard. Every child holding their medallion received the same kind of hit. The witchers grabbed a couple of the kids, some putting them over their shoulders after slipping their medallions around their skinny little necks.
When Nolani woke, it was to a bloody scream. Brown eyes rapidly opened with a kickstart to her body. The feeling of fear was shoved down her throat as she gulped when she realized the shit she was in. The first fucking test. She should have known better than expect something like this. Witchers were cruel, but you had to be cruel to become one. They had knocked all of the children out and shoved them into a foreign location. The scream was the first thing that brought dread to the realization of these trials. They were putting their lives on the line to become something she had no clue about. Why did she sign up for this? For money? She could have gotten that through working or maybe it was the thought of her not-to-bright future. What a fucking idiot.
Glancing around for familiar faces, she also took in her surroundings. She was standing in the waters of a murky swamp. She had been laid in mushy waters that sunk beneath her feet the moment she stood up. Why are they in a swamp?
What made the person scream bloody murder? Where was everything else?
Similar questions kept on pondering over and over in her head as the panic settled in like the pilgrims. Her body was not happy to accept that panic but was forced to. Where did all the courage she had previously go? A small ironic laugh popped from her lips as she trod towards the dirt land. Then an elongated hand grabbed her ankle— the medallion that she never put on her neck when she got it began to vibrate like a smartphone. Distracted, she looked at it with confusion before being pulled into the murky waters. Bubbles flowed from her mouth as she cried out. The deeper she went, the fewer bubbles came from her mouth. Automatically, her mind registered that if she didn't keep in that breath, she was fucked. The sheered force of whatever was dragging her down brought a heavyweight on her head along with her ears popping.
Fuckfuckfuckfuck— god fucking dammit!
Desperately, she began to kick at the hand pulling her down. When she found out that was useless, she dared to bend with all her strength to dig her nails into the loose skin of the creature. Hard enough to dig into the skin and make it squeal bubbly. That squeal did not sound human. Why wasn't that human? Elves, now this shit? What kind of weed did this world smoke? The sudden burst of adrenaline soared into her fingers, making that thing release her as it went back into its deep, dark waters.
She swam upwards, feeling the strong urge to breathe in something. Blood fell out of her ankle from the claws of the creature. At this point, she could hardly notice the deep gash in her skin. If there was something incredible about the human body, is how strong it can get with an adrenaline rush. Adrenaline gives the human body all sorts of temporary features: decreased feeling of pain, increased strength, and a full mental focus. The muscles are using glycogen stored in the body to increase the contractions; that is where the sudden strength comes in. Adrenaline makes your blood vessels contract to direct your blood to the major muscle groups, pumping more blood into your heart and useful muscles.
The mental focus is caused by the stress hormone released into the body causing the fight-or-flight response that averts your attention from the pain. The rush of adrenaline is caused by the body breaking down energy, breaking down the sugar in the liver to give the body longer time needed during a stressful situation. Nolani knew all of this from medical school and couldn't think why the knowledge was coming up now. Maybe it was a way her mind was trying to cope with the weird-ass situation? Or it was the thought-leading into the after-effects her big adrenaline rush was going to cause later. She didn't want to feel those effects until she was out of here, but the body can only handle the rush for so long without terrible repercussions. One of which can be caused to the heart, after pumping so much blood through it, the less blood will pump through once the rush wears off.
I don't want to die— that's all she could think about right now. She reached the surface of the water, swimming to land, lifting herself from the water in a coughing mess as she held herself up in a half-push-up position.
This was so much worse than what she had done to that man weeks ago. Was this karma? Were the higher powers mad at her for killing? She couldn't believe in any higher powers because of what the fuck she had been through. Dying and then reincarnating into a world full of hell like this seemed like it was impossible not to kill humans to survive. Humans in this world were dangerously different than the ones in hers. This was a world full of grinding monsters and humans like her who would kill to survive. She mourned for her loss of morals, but she also did not want to fucking die. It's kill or be killed here and she was going to come to terms with that if she wanted to live.
And she was okay with that, but right now, what she was facing was not human. If she had the power to kill whatever grabbed her foot, then she fucking would with a smile on her face. Her fear was beginning to mix with anger as she was starting to realize that fucked up world she was now in. At first, the reality seemed to fade until that night she almost got raped. She didn't want to accept the fact she killed that man and enjoyed it. She was no better than the monsters trying to kill her now, but sometimes, to survive in a world full of monsters, you have to become like them. Be it a human, one of these folklore creatures, or the destiny the higher beings bestowed upon her, she will kill to keep her life. This wasn't the modern world where people obey the laws. Now, she had to make her own.
Fuck the folklore, fuck the monsters, fuck destiny.
After her coughing spit, she spits out the dirty water on the mossy, muddy ground. There's a low grumbling coming from the waters behind her. Immediately, she crawls away as it reached out from her with its greeny muscles-clawed hand. Grabbing a fistful of mud, she threw it at its head which had little to no effect. It began to crawl out of the water revealing its humanoid-fish-like form. Its eyes were one color, yellow. Almost like it had a flashlight stuck in its ugly head. The thought made Nolani snort, but inwardly she cursed her stupid comedy coping.
She got herself up and looked around for anything sharp.
A few sticks lay on the ground. Nothing sharp enough to stab it cleanly, but enough to get it through its stupid flashlight skull. She grabbed the thick stick, snapping it with her knee hoping to make a sharper end. Then she pointed the dull end at it, daring it to come for her. Nolani was on a very thick high of adrenaline. Even if she couldn't kill it, then at least stab it where it couldn't walk. Each step it took echoed in her ears, time egged her on, keeping a firm stance at the one-shot she has at disabling this thing. Its hand struck, clawed out. She yelled as she lodged the stick into his left knee, going through it in a mess. Blood splattered onto her face as one of its claws swam down her right eye, scratching it. Closing it, she moaned through the pain, too focused on shoving this creature away from her. With one last hoist forward, she let go of the stick as it slide back. Then she took a sprint in the opposite direction of it. Tears flowed from both eyes, striking the other one with pain. She closed her right eye to avoid the dreadful state she felt. Her breath seethed between her teeth while running away.
She continued running until she rounded a tree and saw a familiar mane of hair— Aiden. His curly locks were evident in her only seeing eye. Nolani cried out, hugging him from behind. Relief washed over her.
"Nolani? What's wrong? What happened to your eye?!" He asked, turning around to bring her into a hug.
They have only known each other for a few weeks, but their bond felt like siblings. She guessed that's what hard times did to people.
Her eye fucking stings like a son of bitch, but she was just happy to see one of her boys safe. With him was Jad, and the other two.
"What happened to you guys?" Nolani asked, releasing Aiden. "You look like you got shoved into a meat grinder!"
"I could say that same to you," Jad remarked with a frown. "What happened to your eye?"
"This weird-looking thing nearly clawed it off as I fought it."
"What the fuck? You say one of those too?" Moise piped up.
"Have you seen the others?" Nolani questioned.
They all shook their heads.
"I hope they are all safe," Aiden states sadly. "It took all four of us to kill one of those monsters and I can't imagine what you went through trying to fend one-off."
"It might be coming after me—" Nolani froze her sentence when she heard the guttering noise. "Speak of the devil..."
"Shit!" Jad cursed, holding up his stick.
Sticks seemed to be the only goddamn weapons out here, Nolani thought. "We need to work as a team to kill this fucker."
"Aiden, stand at the front with me. Moise and Ishit, do as we did last time. Nolani, stand guard from the other direction. Only one eye isn't very useful for aiming and we don't need another one coming our way."
Their plan was efficient as Nolani watched them while watching their backs. Aiden and Jad provided Moise and Ishit with height as they jumped onto their backs to stab the taller creature's head whilst in the air. Their plan worked, partly. The creature stabbed Moise by the neck without mercy as Ishit killed it, tears and disdain running on his face. The scene happened in a slower motion, wrecking a sad gesture in her heart and sympathy for the boy who stabbed the creature multiple times as it went to the ground. Cries of anger and pain reamed through the swamp. The three boys and Nolani walked up to Moise who was choking on his own blood. There was no way he was going to survive. Either he suffers slowly, choking on his own blood, or someone puts him out of his misery.
These boys were mentally children, they either were struck in disbelief or crying for their fallen brothers. The choice was up to Nolani.
This was not how she wanted to kill. She hesitated, then her ears picked up the inaudible plead from Moise's mouth as he coughed up blood. Pain. He was in pain.
Nolani's body moved on its own, about to put the stick through his throat until Jad grabbed her wrist. "Don't."
"What are you doing?!" Aiden cried.
"Lessening the pain," Nolani said automatically, hiding her eye from them by looking at Moise's fallen body.
Jad loosened her wrist understandably, watching her stick pound in his throat. She stabbed a spot that would kill him instantly, the spinal cord. The life left his eyes instantly. Without brain activity, he couldn't feel anything as his body died. She hated using her knowledge of the body like this, but the echoes of survival rang through her ears. This is what the adult would have done in this situation. Briefly, she wondered if this is what witchers do if they see a dying human on the road.
Jad grabbed the medallion off of Moise's neck and pocketed it.
More screams were heard throughout the swamp as they spent the rest of the night huddled next to each other, fending off another few water creatures until they passed the point of exhaustion.
All Nolani hoped was to see the morning sun after all this.
Nolani woke up in a bed the next morning, her eye bandaged up along with her ankle. Her clothes had been changed into a simple grey shirt and pants like a hospital patient. What the fuck is going on?
Moise, she thought. Tears came out of both eyes as she put her wrist to her mouth to prevent any sobs from becoming loud. If this is what it meant to become a witcher, she didn't want to become one. But she doubted that they would allow her to opt-out now. She stood no chance against grown witchers. Fuck, she couldn't even fend off that water monster without any help.
Maybe this is what the elf meant by not knowing. Why would they subject nieve little children to this?
Nolani sat up crying out an angry growl, clenching her teeth together while vigorously wiping tears away. She grabbed the medallion still around her neck throughout everything. The urge to rip it off was strong, but when someone with a clipboard came to her, they watched her with a studying gaze as if she was a fucking test subject. It was the gaze she used to give to healing patients. Except, she was no patient, but some lab rat to this man. He was dressed in fancy robes and had his hair tied up.
Every second his blue eyes tore in her, her anger rose up. "What the fuck do you want, huh?!"
"Calm child or you will reopen the wound the mages have healed."
Mages? Fuck those mages! Nolani tore off her bandages, fully able to see through her wounded eye. Though, a scar was evident going down the middle of her right eye. "I don't want this! Get me out of here!"
"You have no choice in the matter."
She really, really wanted to rip his pretty pale face off. "Why is that?"
"Treyse has high hopes for you to become the first female witcher."
"Fuck that!"
"Bite your tongue and lie back down."
"Fuck you! I'm leaving," she declared, throwing her medallion to the ground, stomping off.
Though she did not know where to go, anywhere was better than here.
"I'm afraid you do not have that option," the man said, snapping his fingers as one of the other people like him hit the back of her head.
