Chapter Fifty-One — Fetching Help
Chapter Fifty-One — Fetching Help “Gosh... Darn it,” I swore as the tracks in the ground just sort of stopped. Between one muddy step and the next there wasn’t so much as a trace of the six sets of hoofprints left.My left fist tightened, my right... sort of flopped uselessly and sent a nauseating wave of pain through my entire body.I carefully held my broken wrist and turned back to stare at the bridge, still well in sight.The cervids had truly gotten away.Not that there was much I could do even if I caught up. I didn’t doubt for a moment that they had been holding back. Their leader wanted to leave behind a witness. I couldn’t quite piece together the why of it. It didn’t make sense.I looked back and forth from the bridge to the path they might have taken.It felt as if someone were grabbing my heart and squeezing, as if something were trying to crush my lungs in my chest and, for a long moment, I had a hard time even breathing. This wasn’t leaving a potential friend because our paths split. This was losing a friend because someone had taken her away from me to do... do horrible things to her.Orange pushed her head into my neck and looked up to me with eyes that reflected my sadness right back at me.“Why?” I asked. I’m not sure who I was asking. The empty air. The world itself? It didn’t matter. Things like this shouldn’t have happened, not in my fun fantasy world with magic and dragons and fairies and...I wiped my eyes again. I didn’t have time for this!Amaryllis needed saving, now more than ever.If I had to... to hurt people to save a friend, I would.Still, I had to find her first. There weren’t any tracks left, and I didn’t have the ability to see them from too high above. Even jumping as high as I couldn’t didn’t reveal anything. Orange was a cat, she couldn't track by scent the way a dog could.And that gave me an idea.I didn’t run so much as I sprinted. I only stopped by the bridge to fling my backpack off to reduce my weight. I only kept my spear and spade. Then I was off again, legs kicking out with constant jumps, the road flying by under me as I ate away at the distance.What had taken Amaryllis and I two hours to cross at a leisurely walk took me twenty minutes.In the end I collapsed into an ungainly heap at the front of Fort Frogger, my legs wobbly and inflamed from the constant impacts against the ground. Jumping so much couldn’t be good, not if the twinges of pain travelling up my legs meant anything, but I didn’t have time for anything like that.It took a moment for me to catch my breath and finally get to my feet. The skeletal knights by the gate hadn’t so much as flinched on my arrival.I walked past them, wincing as the many many aches across my body that two healing potions hadn’t cured. I had one left, but it was for Amaryllis. She would need it more than I would.“Gunther!” I called out as I knocked on the door with a closed fist. “Mister Gunther, please. I need help!”The door to the fort opened. Mister Gunther stood in the entrance, flanked by Throat Ripper and looking quite unamused. Then he took me in and his expression shifted. “What happened to you?” he asked. “No, wait, come in, come in.”I followed him in. I wanted to talk right away, but he just kept walking until he was in the lounge and sitting in one of the chairs. The other two had been packed away already, so I was left standing before him. “Amaryllis was taken. Um, we were attacked. At that bridge.”“Not by my skeletons?” he asked.“No. No by deer people. Amaryllis called them cervids? There were six of them. They were in uniforms.”Gunther looked at me, an eyebrow rising. Then he saw my wrist. “Come closer. Give me your hand.”“It’s broken,” I said without approaching.“I had assumed as much,” he said drolly. “Is your class suited to mending bones?” he asked.“No?”“Then listen to what I say and come here.” I came closer and extended my hand to him. He wasn’t very gentle, and I had to hold back a hiss as he turned it over. “Apologies. Most of the time when I’m handling bones the... owner isn’t capable of feeling pain any longer.” He gripped my hand and pulled.There was a sickening pop, and I gasped. Then a wash of warmth raced through my wrist and arm and the pain faded to a memory. I yanked my hand back and hugged it close, but a few motions revealed it to be back to normal.“Tell me of your encounter.”I swallowed. “Oh, okay,” I said. I recounted the story of what had just happened. By the end I was breathing hard and I didn’t know if I wanted to throw a tantrum or start crying. Throat Ripper helped by standing next to me and pushing his big head into my side.“I see,” was all Gunther said in the end. He arched his hands together and leaned back into his chair. “What are you going to do now?”“I.. I wanted to ask your help,” I said while looking to the ground. I was still idly scratching Throat Ripper’s neck, but that didn’t require much thought.“To return to Green Hold unbothered? I could let you take a pair of skeletons with you. It would serve as a good deterrent.”“No, to save Amaryllis. I can’t track them down. I don’t know where they went,” I said.“Didn’t you already lose against them? What makes you think you stand a chance now?” he asked.I sniffled. I wasn’t going to start crying again. “I don’t know. But I have to save her! She’s my friend!”Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.Gunther looked at me for a long while, then he let out a sigh. “I suppose we could assist you.”“Thank you!” I said before I launched myself across the room and hugged him. “Thank you so, so much!” I repeated.Gunther didn’t seem to know what to do, so he settled with patting me on the head as if I was Throat Ripper. “Yes, yes. Well. Throat Ripper will be the one doing the assisting. And we won’t do it for free.”I stood back up and nodded. I was smiling again, for the first time in hours. It had been a long time since I’d gone so long without a smile. “Yes, anything.”“Any— don’t make such open promises,” he said. “We’ll help in exchange for a favour.”“What sort?” I asked. I was eager to get going now. With Throat Ripper helping I was sure I could find Amaryllis.“Nothing uncouth, I assure you. Just return here and you’ll see what I wish of you.”“I can do that,” I said. “Can we leave now? Please? I don’t know what they’re doing to her. We need to save Amaryllis.”“I’m not sending my best friend out there with only you for support,” Guther said. “I’ll gather my swiftest skeletons and send them as well. If there truly are six adversaries that have reached or passed the first rank, then you’ll need a far greater number of skeletons to hold them back. Cervids are no pushovers.”Gunther stood up and I followed him as he started ordering skeletons around. First he told Throat Ripper and a few of the butler skeletons to go get the dog’s armour, then he stepped out and casually pointed to half a dozen skeletons, all of them cervid, and told them to go and get equipped for battle.It was a little disconcerting to see how much power Gunther had around his little fort, but that power was on my side and would help me save Amaryllis, and Gunther didn’t seem like a bad sort of guy.“Your goal is to save your friend?” Gunther asked me as we both moved back into the fort.“Yeah, of course,” I said.“Then the moment you arrive, focus on that and nothing but. Take your friend and run back here, or if you must, towards Green Hold. The cervids aren’t welcome there, nor is anyone else from the Trenten Flats.”“Is there some history there?” I asked. “Or is it just, uh, speciesism?”Gunther blinked, then smiled as he rubbed at his nose. “Ah, yes I suppose you wouldn’t know. The United Republic of the Trenten Flats is the largest nation on the continent. They’re also fiercely expansionist and rather troublesome to have as neighbours. Some decades ago they invaded Deepmarsh. Or rather, they tried to.”“Deepmarsh stopped them?” It wasn’t time for a history lesson, but I was waiting and maybe learning a little about the kidnappers would help.“They will certainly claim so. I believe that the truth is more nuanced. The Trenten invasion was large, outnumbering any force Deepmarsh could bring by three to one. But they were led by an inexperienced general, didn’t have many scouts, and the army they fielded was green. The swamps, unfiltered water, and the insects of the marsh did more to whittle down the army than the resistance Deepmarsh rallied to defend their borders.”“That sounds messy,” I said. I could imagine a huge army trying to trek through the same swampy land Amaryllis and I had walked across. With wagons and horses and a lot of people walking over the same muddy ground all day. It wasn’t hard to imagine the average soldier’s morale taking a hit.“I still find bodies to this day,” Gunther said. “Ah, Throat Ripper is ready.”The big, rather silly bone doggy had changed a whole lot over the course of the last ten minutes. He was now covered from head to tail in thick padded armour, with a layer of what looked like the scaly hide of some sort of crocodile. His head was covered in a helmet that only left the burning embers of his eyes visible and there were boney spikes sewn into the material of his armour all along his sides and back and haunches.“Oh, wow,” I said. “You look so scary Throat Ripper,” I said. “Yes you do, yes you do!”The bone doggy wiggled his butt and his tail, now equipped with a thagomizer, swung from side to side in glee.“There’s a seat built into the top of his armour. It’s far from comfortable, but it works well enough as long as you hang on tightly.”I don’t know what my expression was like, but Gunther took one look at me and chuckled.“Remember what I said. Grab your friend and return. Don’t dilly dally. Don’t try and fight the cervids unless you have no other choice. And if it comes to the choice between you and them, do pick yourself. It would be insulting if you were unable to pay back your favour because you managed to get yourself killed.”I swallowed, the joy that learning that I’d get to ride Throat Ripper into battle snuffed out by his warning. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll do what I can.”“Good,” Gunther said. “Now, don’t worry about the skeletons. They’re immensely disposable. And Throat Ripper is likely stronger than most everyone but the elites among the Cervid army. He can take care of himself. And if he does pass on, I can always bring him back.”“Thank you, Gunther. I... just thank you.”“Go save your friend, little riftwalker. You can thank me later.”I grinned at him, and when Throat Ripper bounded out of the front door I followed after the big pup. With a bounce, I landed on the bone dog’s broad back and grabbed two spikes that were placed so as to be handholds for the rider. “C’mon Throat Ripper, let’s go save Amaryllis.”
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Chapter Fifty-Two — Hard to Ignore
Chapter Fifty-Two — Hard to Ignore Riding on Throat Ripper was not nearly as neat as I thought it would be. For one thing, he had a really wide back, and while I was able to hook my ankles around some of the spikes behind me, it still left me with my legs stretched out uncomfortably.Then there was the constant bumping gait that had me almost bouncing off of the bone doggy’s back with every step.Behind us a group of a little over a dozen cervid skeletons formed up into a rough line, each one hanging onto a spear and shield, their eyes glowing even in the midday sunlight.“Faster,” I told Throat Ripper. It didn’t matter that it hurt, if I wanted to save Amaryllis I had to get there before they did anything nasty to her. Throat Ripper complied, huge claws digging into the earth to shoot up forwards at a speed that would have had me whooping with joy were the situation any different.We soon arrived at the bridge and I pointed ahead towards my bag. “That’s where I left my stuff,” I said. “We can take it later, but Amaryllis was taken around here.”Throat Ripper, being the very smart and good boy that he was, understood and slowed down his mad dash to a trot, then a slow walk that allowed me to sit back down and rest my behind on the saddle built into his armour.The skeletal doggy crossed the river, then spun around a few times, nose close to the ground. There wasn’t any sniffing, and I wondered how he was managing to make out any smells at all without a nose, but that didn’t seem to matter as he perked up and started moving off the road.When we stopped a little while later my heart sank. I was afraid that he had lost the scent, but Throat Ripper was the best and, with a growl that made my entire body vibrate, he pounced forwards and hopped from one little marshy island to the next.Soon I caught signs that the cervid had been around. Hoofprints in the soggy soil, bushes that had been cut apart in unnatural ways and patches of the ground that seemed... lifted.I guessed that they had stopped caring about stealth after a little ways.The sun was high overhead when I heard a distant sound. Talking. Too far away for me to understand, but that didn’t matter. Voices meant people and the only people I thought we would be meeting were the villains we were chasing.“I’m going to scout ahead,” I told Throat Ripper. “Can you and the other skeletons wait here?”He nodded his big doggy head.“Alright. Hide. If they spot me they might chase me, and it might be best that they don’t see you.”The doggy growled. Not one long continuous rumble, but a series of grumbles that were interrupted a few times. The skeletons all darted this way and that. Some splashing into the muddy waters and submerging themselves until only the top of their heads were visible. Others jumped into the skeletal branches of some nearby trees and then stood frozen on the spot, completely immobile. The rest burrowed into bushes and hid in their shadows.In under a minute the only plainly visible skeleton was Throat Ripper. He padded back a way and sat behind a rock.“Right,” I said. “I’ll be back in no time at all, but if I don’t return... then save Amaryllis for me?”The dog looked my way, then let out a whine.I could only respond with a sad smile.The area wasn’t as marshy as some of the spots we had passed over the last day or so. There were more rivulets here and fewer large ponds, and the ground was rockier. I could see the mountain range to the east a whole lot clearer, which meant that we were probably on the edge of Deepmarsh’s territory.That was both good and bad news. It meant that moving was easier. It also meant that the bad guys would be getting further away faster.I scowled. I couldn’t pin the moment I had decided that the cervid, at least this group of them, were the bad guys. It was probably because they were no-good meanies who kidnapped my friend.Still, thinking of people as ‘bad guys’ was dehumanizing. Or whatever the word was for dehumanizing something that wasn’t a human. It made it too easy to think of them as non-people, which in turn meant that hurting them was easier to justify.That was the kind of mindset that started wars and racism and it wasn’t a nice way of thinking.I was better than that.So, these cervid, bad as they might be, might have had good reasons to kidnap Amaryllis. Maybe her family was secretly evil. Maybe their loved ones were being held hostage. Maybe... there were lots of maybes.Did it matter?I hopped over to the edge of a hill and immediately fell to the ground as I heard talking nearby. They were close. I recognized Amaryllis’ voice.On hands and knees I snuck up to the edge of the hill and slowly looked over it.“-And then, once we’re done ruining your economy, pitiful as it is, we’ll ruin that filthy misogynistic culture of yours!” Amaryllis was saying.I grinned. She was still alive.Sure, she had ropes wrapped all around her chest and was slung over the shoulder of one of the cervid-The Lancer I had fought-but she was in one piece. Her wounds even looked better, with a strip of cloth wrapped around her leg. Her jacket was long gone, and it looked as if they had frisked her, but she was in good enough shape to complain.It was as if a stone had been lifted from my shoulders.“Can we shut her up yet?” One of the cervids asked. The mage that Amaryllis had fought. “We have some cloth laying around.”The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.The leader shook his head. “No. She might choke herself just to spite us.”“When we stop,” the Plains Speaker spoke up. “Can I have a bit of fun with her?”This time the leader took a while to reply. “The client didn’t specify if she needed to be intact or not.”“Is that a yes?” he asked.The leader shook his head. “Not until we get confirmation.”“Stop talking over my head in your barbaric tongue!” Amaryllis shouted.“Can we at least slap her until she stops screaming?” one of them asked. “She’s going to attract trouble. And she’s giving me a headache besides.”I loosened my hand. It had been clenched so tight that my nails were digging into my palms hard enough to leave marks. They were going to... to do bad things to her.“Someone’s watching us,” one of the cervid said.I looked up in time to see a few sets of eyes looking my way. “Oh, shoot.”“Two, Four, after her!” the leader said.I didn’t wait to see which cervid that meant. I just shoved off the hill and jumped away, pushing enough stamina into the motion that I practically flew across the landscape.I heard hooves thundering after me. They were catching up, even with my head start.A glance over my shoulder showed a cervid waving a staff in the air, a sort of almost transparent whip flicking up and out above him. Then it shot forwards.My next jump threw me sideways and around a tree, one that I knew held a skeletal cervid in it.The whip-crack was like a rifle going off behind me, and the tree’s trunk exploded into a shower of splinters that had me covering my head.Any doubt I had that they hadn’t been holding back at the bridge fled.I jumped over the rock where Throat Ripper hid and backed up into it.Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Jumping skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!Rank B costs two (2) Class Points“Not now,” I muttered to Mister Menu.Throat Ripper tilted his head at me.“Come on out, girl, and we’ll only kill you slowly,” one of them said.Were they trying to sound like b-rated villains?Throat Ripper made a noise deep in his bones that shook the air around him. It sunk into me, and soon I found myself having a hard time just breathing.Then he roared.You have heard the roar of a fearsome creature! Your soul is shaken.Throat Ripper grabbed onto the edge of the stone we were hiding behind, claws digging into the rock hard enough that little pieces of it rained down around me. Then he leapt over the edge.I heard two screams, then one.The mud to the side exploded apart as a skeleton ran out of it and I heard another dropping from a tree.Soon there were no more screams.Congratulations! You have killed Titan, (Wind Runner Level 12 / Wind Tear Level 4 ) and Rex, (Flaming Lancer level 10)! Bonus Exp was granted for killing a person above your level! Due to not being the primary combatant your reward is reduced!“No,” I whispered.The prompt, the accusation, disappeared.Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun class has reached level 7!Stamina +5Flexibility +10You have gained: One Class Point“No,” I said. “Take it back? Please?” I begged to Mister Menu. I didn’t deserve a level, I didn’t deserve to get stronger.The level up prompt just floated there.Maybe I did deserve it.Maybe it was my condemnation. Absolute proof that I had done the worst thing a person could do.Titan and Rex. Two people that wouldn’t be going home. That wouldn’t be seeing their families. They wouldn’t spend any more time with their friends. Two people that I had killed, that I had taken everything away from.I was having a bit of difficulty breathing. My heart couldn’t decide if it should be racing or seizing and I felt torn up, as if some huge monster was tugging me every which way.A nose to the side had me looking up.Throat Ripper didn’t have eyes, not really, but there was still concern radiating off of him.“A-Amaryllis,” I said. “We still need to save her.”Throat Ripper opened his mouth. I looked away. There was too much blood there.I moved out from around the rock, eyes firmly shut. I didn’t want to see. I should have looked. I should have allowed the scene to sear itself into my mind for the rest of my life.But in the end I was a coward.We moved past, Throat Ripper guiding me as I held onto one of the bony spikes on his armour.“Wh-when we arrive,” I began. “Let me talk. Please? There’s still a chance. We can negotiate, or... or I can apologize. At the very least? To their friends?”The skeletal dog didn’t seem to understand most of what I had said, but I think he knew that I wanted to go ahead on my own again. We moved a little slower, with me setting the pace and the skeletons moving in a wedge behind us.We were giving the cervid time to prepare, time to get ready to attack us as soon as we showed up. That was okay. It gave me time to breath too, to... bury what I had caused. Not very deep, but enough that I could function for a little bit.Mom had always told me not to hide how I felt about the world, that I should always let my tears and my smiles run free.So, while we walked, I mourned for two men whose names I knew, but whose faces were still unknown to me, and would probably remain that way forever.And then we were near the hill, and the time for sadness and such was over.
