“Nah, won’t be doin that. I go out from your caterwauling and when I come to your man’s put all my boys in the grave.” The bandit held the crossbow up, steadied on the half-elf. “So I think it’s fair we both just wait here till he bleeds out. I see any glow in your hands and I put you down.”
“Only one of your men has died. Two ran off scared, the man behind me is just held by magic, and the one here is just knocked out. Check if you want!” Annice cried out, pointing at the man who she healed.
The bandit leader narrowed his eyes and slowly made his way to his fallen compatriot, giving the man a gentle kick to the shoulder. “Oy, Malky, you still with the livin?” The bandit leader’s eyes were drawn to the other as he coughed and groaned to consciousness.
“B…Breen.” He called out, eyes opening slowly. “Ah, Gods breen. This was a bad score.” He tolled onto his side and pushed himself to one knee.
“Naw that ain’t right, before I wend down I saw what the big one did, he crushed you, struck you square in the chest with that hammer o’ his. No walkin away from that!” The bandit leader, Breen, turned back to Annice. “What’s the game here?!” He shouted.
“I Spared him, and healed his injuries.” She stated coldly.
Breen looked down at Malky, there was an angry confusion in his eyes, but he slipped the crossbow into a holster at his back, and knelt down to helm the other to his feet.
“Alright, luv, come on back to your feet” Breen said to the man, Annice’s brow rose.
“Breen.” Malky said gently, looking up at the other man. “Saw the Pit demons comin for me… was gonna drag me to the lower Hell, could see the hunger in their eyes for my soul. Don’t know why but they stopped.”
“Now now, you just shush up now till we get back home.” Breen turned his gaze back to Annice. He glowered. “Right. Life for a life, heal the bastard.” Annice took no time, ripping the bolt from Wilhelm’s throat unceremoniously and pressing her hand into the blood that pooled there, a radiant light pouring from her palm into his ragged flesh. When she pulled away the hole was gone and Wilhelm’s breathing had returned.
“And me other man?” Breen called out, nodding to the one behind Wilhelm and Annice, the one who was stuck in place unable to move.
“You walk away from here, far as you can get to where you can still see us. When you see our horses ride away my spell will be released and you can come fetch him, deal?” Annice leveled her gaze at the man, a parlay may have been in effect, but she was no fool and knew that this was a tenuous peace at best.
“Agreed. I find my man with anything but the injuries he had when you snared him, I’ll track you down and make sure it happens to you and your man twice over.” Breen stated, Annice knew it wasn’t a threat.
“Breen stop, just… I want to go home.” Malky sputtered, healed or not, he was clearly still exhausted from his ordeal and leaned heavily into Breen, head pressed against his shoulder. Breen pressed his lips to the man’s forehead and nodded.
“Soon my luv, soon. I’ll get you home and we’ll all have some of Derk’s stew, yeah?” Breen hazarded a soft smile for Malky, before turning a stony gaze back to Annice. “You best pack your gear and get out of here, I won’t be made to wait, yeah?” Annice nodded, and Breen started to pull away, leading Malky away from the grove.
Annice waited a long few minutes for Breen and Malky to retreat before pressing her hands to either side of Wilhelm’s face, she took a breath and he slowly opened his eyes as she cast her magic into him. He immediately started choking, coughing violently as Annice helped him roll onto his side, blood that had pooled in his throat sprayed over the dirt, and he groaned as he struggled to take an even breath. Annice stood and walked away from the man, starting to gather her belongings.
“Pack the tents.” Was all she said to the man, who was still barley up, pressing onto all fours.
“Wh-what?” He croaked, and let out another series of coughs.
“Pack the tents, we need to go now.” She responded.
“What… what happened?” He rubbed his face, and fell back onto his knees, sitting on his haunches.
“The only reason we’re both alive right now is because I healed that man, now pack the tents, we need to be out of here before Breen gets his lover far enough away and changes his mind.” She stated, finally fetching her boots from her ravaged tent and polling them over filthy feet. She began to gather her things from the tent and shoving them into her pack with little regard for how they went in.
“Breen? Lover? I think I missed some things.” Wilhelm shook his head, but he gathered the jist of what was said, he stood and retrieved his hammer and shield, before turning towards the tent. “Blasted one’s still up!” He shouted, walking up to the man who was taken by Annice’s spell.
“Do not harm him!” She screamed, and Wilhelm jumped at her ferocity. “If you touch a hair on his head they will track us down and kill us, understand?” She glared at Wilhelm for a long moment, before turning away from him. Pack on her back she moved to the horses, starting to prep them for the days travel.
“I… I wasn’t gonna.” Wilhelm muttered, but thought it best not to argue. He nodded and began to take down the tents. One was easier than the other, as it was already mostly taken down, the other came not long after and eventually the camp site was cleared. Wilhelm approached Annice and as he did Annice wordlessly mounted Kasimira and began to trot back to the path. Wilhelm sighed, and lifted hismefl onto Ale to follow suit. A cry was heard as they left the grove, Wilhelm turned his head in time to see the man captured by Annice’s magic released, shouting in surprise as he fell into the dirt.
The two traveled for many hours in silence, neither willing to say the first word. So silence was the way it was. Annice took the silence to take in the world, and remind herself of it’s beauty after that ordeal. Her face lightened as she heard songbirds tweeting their melodies, relaxed in the cool autumn breeze, and even smiled as she saw two squirrels chasing each other’s tails in a field. It was nearly noon time when Annice was finally starting to feel some distance from the morning, though it hung in the back of her mind. She wondered if it would always be back there.
“I’m sorry, Annice.” Wilhelm finally said. The Cleric glanced at him, she was momentarily angry again, but shook herself of the emotion. She sighed.
“Why are you sorry, Wilhelm?” She asked.
“Well, it’s fairly obvious I upset you, and when you upset someone, you apologize. S’what Drue taught me.” He said, eyes turning from the road to catch her gaze, he seemed truly remorseful.
“The entire encounter upset me Wilhelm. I was… not ready for that.” She said, trying to reassure him.
“Yeah well, I was part of the encounter so obviously I got some of the blame there.” He said. “And for that, Annie, I’m sorry.”
“Thank you Wilhelm.” She said, sighing. “And I am sorry for screaming at you. When I accepted your offer, and even when Mareen gave us this mission, I have to say I was naïve enough to not think I would encounter death.”
“Guess the Temple of Syrene don’t look to highly upon killin.” Wilhelm asked.
“No, we don’t.” She stated flatly. “Death is the only true loss of Peace.” She said, a soft but somewhat sad smiled appeared on her face. “We’re taught that there is always a chance for Peace, that no matter how much hate, how much division there may be, peace is always possible.” She looked into the sky, watching a hawk bank and make circles in the sky. “Death is the one thing that stops peace.”
“Ain’t no exceptions to that?” Wilhelm probed.
“There are.” Annice said, looking to the man again. “They’re not… taught though, by the high priestess” She furrowed her brow. “If you investigate the holy texts, which many novice’s don’t do, you will find that Syrene does speak of protecting peace that exists from those who would disrupt it.”
“So defendin yourself.” Wilhelm said.
“Or others.” Annice explained. “The texts go on to explain that while creating peace is ultimately the goal of any faithful, allowing the end of an existing peace, wherever it exist, is a failing of Syrene.”
“Sounds to me like Syrene’s alright with her folk getting their hands a little dirty in the name of protectin others.” Wilhelm said, tilding his head to the Cleric.
“That’s one interpretation.” Annice stated bluntly. “Others feel, and this is the more common interpretation, that Syrene calls on us to condemn any who disturbs peace, to use word and influence of whatever governments and law masters exist to keep peace from failing.
“Which interpretation do you think is right?” Wilhelm asked, but furrowed his brow when no answer came. He noticed Annice was looking down at her hands which rested on the saddle horn. He reached over and touched her shoulder. “Uh, Annie I didn’t mean to..” She shook her head, and flashed him a smile.
“It’s fine, I just…” She struggled to find the words. “I guess I haven’t made up my mind yet.” She let out an awkward chuckle. She turned her gazer to him inquisitively. “Why do you sometimes call me Annie?”
“Huh? Oh!” Wilhelm stated, rubbin his chin. “Dunno really, didn’t realize I was doin it so much. Guess it’s just I’m getting more comfortable with you, getting to know you, yeah?” He smiled “Feels less formal to Annice, if that makes any sense.” She shrugged. “I’ll stop if you want me to.”
“I didn’t say that.” She smiled, she liked the idea that this man was enjoying her company. She had watched him as a fan for so long now, and was surprised herself at how easy it was to treat him as a friend. “You can call me Annie if you like.” Wilhelm nodded.
“Right then, Annie.” He grinned. “So if these texts aren’t bein taught by the High Priestess, how I wonder did you come by them and learn these alternate interpretations of a Goddess’ will, hm?” His grin grew wider as Annice showed clear signs of mild embarrassment, like that of a child with their hand in the sweets.
“Well!” She began, clearly whipping up some logical justification on the fly. She instead sighed and decided to be straight forward. “I’m ninety three, Wilhelm, and while I grew up in the Temple I only joined the path of the Cleric fifteen years ago. I wasn’t always a Faithful, just a follower. And followers have much less… shall we say… restrictions?” She grinned sheepishly.
“Yeah?” Wilhelm leaned in, pressing her to go on. She sighed in exasperation.
“I snuck into the Holy Library!” She blurted out. “And I read the texts myself, I was curious! And bored. Ninety three years is a long time to spend in a church.” Wilhelm laughed, and Annice joined him.
The journey was much more enjoyable for the two from that point on, the tension between them had not vanished, the experience had clearly affected the half-elf, but they were much more free with their words, and any animosity between them had cooled. They rode for several hours chtting casually, and stopped only a handful of times when Wilhelm slowed his horse, peering over the distance. Each time they waited several minutes, Annice felt her panic riing each time, but it was never another bandit attack. Beasts are what stopped them, a pack of wolves one time, a swarm of stirges another. There was one particular moment where they were stopped for near an hour when the road passed through a small but heavy Forrest, and there on the road was an Owlbear taking a mid day nap. Wilhelm wanted nothing to do with the beast, and told Annice he would rather fight the wolves and stirges together than face down one Owlbear. Wilhelm spent some time pacing back and forth, trying to think of a way to go around the beast. To backtrack and go around the forest would take too long, adding half a days travel to a jouney they were told to make two days short, and the horses would not do well in the thick woods. Wilhelm sat on the road, cross legged and cross armed pondering the situation, clearly exhausting all possibilities.
Annice, who was laying forward along Kasimira’s neck stroking the beast’s face boredly, sighed and slid off the horse. She started to approach the Owlbear, Wilhelm whispered out a hard call but she waved him off. The large man watched her as she strode up to the beast and prodded at it’s feathers, which bristled and rose as the creature’s slumber was disturbed. It pushed itself off the ground, turned to Annice, and reared up onto its hind legs, bellowing out a squawking roar. The cleric calmly places her hand on the creatures belly, and moments before the fierce creature raked it’s claw across the Cleric’s torso, a flash of holy light filled it. The owlbear’s eyes glowed gently as it slowly shifted back to four paws, and tilted it’s head towards the half-elf woman before it.
“Alright now, shoo. Go, get outa here, you’re holding us up and that’s very rude!” Annice said, waving her hands at the beast in a shooing gesture. The owlbear’s head rotated around, until it made a near circle, and bristled again. It let out a very perturbed swquak. “No. None of that, shoo! Go find a patch of moss to sleep on, come on now.” Wilhelm wathed in amazement as the beast huffed and began trodding away.
“How in the three hells did you do that?” Wilhelm asked as he lead the two horses to ANnice.
“A calming spell that clears the mind of anger and aggression.” She shrugged.
“And why didn’t you use that before I spent the better part of an hour makin an ass of myself lookin for a way around the thing?” Wilhelm asked, staring down at the woman.
“Oh, I didn’t want to interupt you, seemed you were in deep concentration.” ANnice smiled and hopped back on to her horse.
“…Right.” Wilhelm said bluntly, climbing back on to Ale.
The two rode on for a few hours more, soon though the sun was waning again and Wilhelm started the search for another campsite. He pointed off into the field a bit, a large rock formation, one oblong bolder fallen over another, creating a sort of alcove. They brought there horses into the field and started to set up the camp under the rock, Annice having a much harder time finding sufficient firewood this time around, being in a field, she had to travel much further to discover wood. By the time she came back Wilhelm was cursing. Perplexed she moved to him, he had set up one of the tents, but the other was a different matter altogether. Wilhelm stood back from it, looking at the gash in the canvis and broken tent poles. He sighed and turned back to ANnice as she approched.
“Ah, I thought I could maybe sure it up bu maybe doing some quick stitching with string, but I just ended up makin the whole thing worse.” He turned to the other tent and leaned into it grabbing his pack and sleeping mat “I’ll sleep out here, you take my tent.”
“I appreciate the chivalry, Wilhelm, but there’s really no need.”Annice took the slack material of the tent in one hand and pulled the tear closed, then she wiped her hand across the material, the holy light emanating from her palm and as the hand moved across the tear simply vanished. Once done with that she moved inward taking the cracked pole, held together but crooked by tightly bound string, she wrapped her fingers around it to form a fist and another flash of light the pole was straight an more importantly whole again. Wilhelm stared, a brow quirked.
“I’m beginin to realize I should not have been payin my previous healer what I was payin him.” He stated deadpan.
“Probably!” Annice said, smiling broadly. “I’ll get the fire started.”
“You do that.” Wilhelm moved to Ale and retrieved something from the saddle bag. Annice watched as Wilhelm procured a rather comically large heavy crossbow from the bag. She balked.
“I didn’t know you could fire a crossbow.” She said, feeling the word crossbow wasn’t sufficient, the weapon was obnoxiously large. “Thought your whole thing was hammers?”
“I mean, yeah it is, but you can’t exactly bring supper down by smackin it with a hammer.” He paused. “I mean yeah you could, but you’d have to be a hells of a sprinter.” He reached into the pack and drew out a quiver of bolts, they looked almost as long as shortbow arrows. “I can pretty much weild any weapon that man or otherwise brought into this world. Hammers just speak to me in a way nothin else does.” He smiled, nodded, and headed off towards a field of tall grass, hoping to use the finals hours of daylight to rustle up some food.
Wilhelm was gone for near two hours, time that Annice took to pray, she had started to once again bless the land that would be there camp, but stopped partway through the ritual. The blessing di not work, they were attacked. Maybe Nim was right, maybe it was a mistake to go with Wilhelm. But she had heard Syrene again today, before she found her holy spells were stored in her mind and cast the Radiant Word? Or maybe that was just a memory. She was tarting to doubt and remember stories of spellcasters who found magic stored in the mind when none had been there previously. These moments were usually under intense stress and struggle, but that was Arcane magic… Wizards, could that also happen to Clerics?
Annice found herself knelt in the field some distance from the campfire, hands pessed against her chest. She called to Syrene to tell her what she should do, asking if it was her voice she heard again or if the sight of Wilhelm under attack had simply triggered a memory of her vision. She asked if she was on the right path or if her deeds displeased the Goddess. She asked and asked, she started without words asking in her mind, and then in whispers and finally shouting into the sky. No response came, and Annice felt more alone than she had in her entire life. She trembled and tears formed in her eyes. Was she being abandoned by her god?
“Annie?!” Wilhelm’s voice rang out, Annice broke from her concentration and turned. She stood and sniffled, quickly wiping the tears and her face with her sleeve. “Annie where’d you get off to?” Wilhelm called again.
“H-here!” She called, voice slightly croaky. She cleared her throat and approched the campsite. “I’m here. I was just… blessing the land, asking Syrene to watch over us and keep us safe.” She managed a smile. Wilhelm nodded.
“Yeah that’s a damn fine idea. Maybe we won’t get a repeat of what happened last night, huh?” Wilhelm didn’t know how much those words stung his companion, so he moved on. “Got us some good eatin.” He declared, swinging a rope he had over his shoulder into view. Tied into it were three animals, two brown hares and a hawk. Wilhelm seemed most proud of the hawk. “See, I ws goin for this little buggar here.” He explained, “When this guy swooped down to steal him away. As I fired I winged the hawk, who dropped the hare and boom. Two meats.” He smiled widely.
“Thats very impressive.” She was humoring him, too many things on her mind. “I’ll set up a spit for them all.” She moved past the man, heading back to the fire.
Wilhelm skinned the hares and feathered the hawk quickly and skillfully, Annice realized he must spend most of his nights on the road, traveling from Tournement to tournament. She was glad for the anything to distract herself from her worries, and as Wilhelm prepped the animals for cooking, she thought to start a conversation.
“So how long have you been fighting, Wilhelm?” She asked.
“Oh, my whole life really.” He responded, sliding the animals over the fire, and cranking th rotisserie. “Was the only human boy in a miners town full of dwarves and I was a rambunctious little SOB too. Drue figured teachin me how to fight was the best way to learn me some disciplin… I say it half worked.” He grinned.
“I mean when did you start professionally?” Annice leaned in, balancing her arms over her knees.
“Oh, well…” He started, having to think about it. “Must be about ten years now? Yeah ten years ago.”
“Ten?” She asked, furrowing her brow. “That can’t be right, how old are you?”
“Twenty eight seasons next summer. Assuming I was dropped into Drue’s ap as a newborn, best he figures I was. But he’s not exactly seen many human babies, just said I was the scrawniest littlething he ever saw.”
“You started when you were eighteen?!” She exclaimed, sitting up now.
“Yeah sounds about right.” He stated, looking over the meat. “Why?”
“You were a child!” She called. “What were you doing in an arena at such an age?”
“Getting my ass stomped, mostly.” He smirke.
“That’s not funny.” She said, but couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Naw it is. I was a little shit with somethin to prove. Thought I was the Bastard King of the Black Mountains. I walked in needing to get my teeth punched in, and that’s exactly what they did. Tell you what I learned humility that day.” Annice pondered this and leaned in again
“And now you’re one of the most famous Gladiators in the western lands.” She remarked.
“Yeah, cause the folk that beat my ass also lifted me up once I got my act straight.” Wilhelm said bluntly, reaching forward and tearing a hunk of meat from one of the hares and passing it to Annice. “Thy saw I had the potential and made sure I reached it.”
“Wow” Was all Annice could manage.
“We may be a buncha brutish hot heads quick to throw a punch, but I guarantee you there ain’t no one outside of Gladiators that got more heart.” He pulled another hunk of meat from the hawk and placed it on a plate for himself.
Annice nodded, and smiled. Her crisis of faith slipped away from her, letting Wilhelm’s tales take her mind away to somewhere not so full of doubt. At her urging Wilhelm began to tell her of his career, starting as a punk eating dirt every night on to developing a relationship and comradery with the other gladiators, and on to developing himself as a fighter. The tales of battles past came quicker and louder as he told the story, aided on by the two passing a wineskin between themselves. Wilhelm shared the story of his first match outside of his home arena, how terrified he was being away from home, something Annice felt some relief for lerning, it wasn’t just her. The last story Wilhelm shared was the tale of how he received the title of The Unyielding, a stirring tale of how a full blooded orc put Wilhelm down no less than twelve times, beaten and broken the human fighter refused to stay down and got up every time. He didn’t win the fight, but it was probably the battle that won him the most fame. Wilhelm reached to the wineskin, and leaned his head back, drinking nothin. He turned it upside down over the ground, a single drop slipped free of the spigot. Empty. ANnice burst out laughing.
“This was supposed to be enough wine for at least three days between us.” He said, joining in the laugher.
“Hey you drank most of it!” Annice called out, but the red in her face belied that she had her fair share.
“My throat kept drying up!” Wilhelm said in defense. He noticed now, that the fire had run itself out, cinders glowing in the fire pit. Half of the second hare remained of their food, cooling in the air. “How long was I talkin?”
“Hours, Wilhelm, hours.” ANnice wobbled, and grabbed Wilhelm’s knee to steady herself. Wilhelm laughed.
“Sorry about that, I can go on a bit, as you can see, when I’m talkin bout my career.” He rubbed his face, which felt hot.
“It’s fine, I enjoyed myself very much. Thank you for the stories, Wilhelm.” Annice said, patting the mans knee. Wilhel smiled and stood, and almost immediately pitched over, stumbling and nearly ending up in the cindering fire pit. Annice burst out in laughter and as quick to tand herself to help steady him, this was a mistake as she too quickly lost balance and clinged to the man to stay afoot. They both giggled like children as they leaned on each other for support.
“The tents.” Wilhelm said, gesturing.
“Right!” Annice agreed.
The two made their way, in a manner, towards the tent. They hung on to each other to keep upright, but eventually their legs got the idea. Annice patted Wilhelm, thanking him for the assistance, and crawled into her tent. She gave him one last goodbye and a wave before closing the flap and collapsing into her bed mat. Wilhelm stood for a moment, breathing the cool air in to clear his mind a bit. He took one look over the land, concern on his face. If they were attacked now it would all be over, neither of them were in any condition to fight. He looked to the sky.
“Well, in your hands now.” He said, to no particular god at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment