A Village to save

A Village to save

A man on a horse approaches us, sharing his seat with a woman. He is heavily injured and his improvised bandages aren’t holding up well. There is another man riding beside him, but not as heavily armoured. The first man carries a sword and light armour. He immediately reaches for his weapons when he sees us.

‘Are you alright?’ Sheila asks, surprised that he’s even able to stand.

He draws his sword, but the woman calms him down, she then gets off the horse. I now see she’s got a baby in her arms, and I see the shimmering of steel in her hand.

‘I’m Elizabeth Just’ the woman explains, ‘and this is my husband, Shane Alvey. We don’t want any trouble’.

‘No, of course not’ Sheila responds quickly, ‘but I’m a healer, and I’d love to help you’.

Elizabeth looks back at her husband, who still doesn’t trust us.

‘That would be lovely’ she says, her smile warm and welcoming.

The man called Shane gets off the horse, grunting as he hits the ground. Even his horse seems to judge us as Sheila starts to heal.

‘How did you get these injuries?’ Sheila asks.

‘Rough week’ he responds shortly.

The other man, whose name is still unknown, gets off as well, and helps Elizabeth find a place to sit. He sits her down on a rock and they stare at the little child in her hands. I peek from a distance, intrigued by the tiny human.

Elizabeth notices me staring, ‘She doesn’t bite’ she laughs, signaling me to come closer. I hesitantly walk forwards. The baby notices my presence and reaches out to touch me. She closes her small hand around my finger, then starts to giggle.

‘All done’ Sheila says behind me.

I turn around and see Shane standing tall, completely uninjured. He swings his sword around elegantly, which makes a familiar sound.

‘Thank you’ he says reluctantly, but with a smile on his face.

‘It’s time to go’ Geirolf says.

I look back at the family one last time, “Could I ever become so happy?”.

We walk for days before we reach the town, Savvor. There’s a large crack in the ground along the border of the village, as if they tried to dig a small moat, but stopped halfway. Savvor isn’t anything special, except for the rampaging monster charging through town. Wait… what?

Some strange ogre-hedgehog hybrid smashes a building to bits, sending thousands of tiny, wooden splinters our way. Six large shields appear from behind us, blocking most of the potentially deadly projectiles.

‘This is no place for tourists’ one of the knights says.

‘We’re no ordinary tourists’ I respond, trying to keep track of both the monster and the knights.

Dean nods at Geirolf, who mindlessly charges the hybrid. It turns around and swipes another house to rubble. Geirolf’s swords hit the beast’s arm, but are stopped by the many large spikes covering its skin. I aim for the eyes, but it catches them both in the arm and keeps going. A small house falls onto him, trapping it temporarily, probably Sheila’s doing. Dean suddenly appears behind it, throwing two knives into the back of its neck. The ogre swings his arms violently, not being as fragile as most creatures. Dean rips out one of its spikes, which are as sharp as a well forged blade, and thrusts it into the hybrid’s head. After a short pause, it stops moving.

‘I wanted to do that!’ Geirolf yells, clearly upset.

‘Thank you for the help, stranger’ the leading knight says. His followers are still helping people out of the collapsing buildings, but most are dead.

‘We heard you needed help’ I respond.

When he asks who told us, I avoid the question.

He sits us down in the barracks. The walls are over a meter thick, and covered with spikes on the outside. A well made, stone base. The man explains the situation, it was a long story. Basically, there’s an angry wizard. Pretty straight forward if you ask me. The wizard, named Citrio Siculus, makes some strange animal hybrids and sends them down the mountain to misbehave. He doesn’t tell many details, but I think I’ve heard enough.

‘Where’s the mountain?’ Dean asks.

A female knight soon escorts us to the foot of the mountain. Many townspeople don’t expect us to return, and don’t get their hopes very high. The reward is good, very good. Not enough to live your entire life off of, but a decent start.

‘Are we there yet?’ Geirolf asks. We’re still at the foot of the mountain, so this better be a joke.

Dean looks around, then makes the first step, starting off our trek to the top. It’s a long and boring climb. We’re halfway up the mountain when Dean and Geirolf get back to being annoying.

‘I see what you can’t see and it’s dark brown’ Dean says.

‘A tree?’ Geirolf responds. Dean nods.

It’s now Geirolf’s turn, ‘I see what you can’t see and it’s green’.

‘Moss?’

‘Nope’

Dean looks around, ‘The large, creepy snake that’s following us?’

‘Yep’

I would have appreciated a proper warning, but it’s a tad bit late for that. The agile reptilian strikes from the trees, slithering around Sheila’s entire body before coming to a stop just below her neck.

We freeze, fearing what it might do to our friend if we try attacking.

‘Listen well’ the snake hisses, ‘Drop your valuables and your weapons. Return to the place you came from, and don’t come back’.

Before I can do anything, there is a whisper from my pocket.

‘Throw me’ the die says yet again, ‘I still want to fly’.

It gives me an idea, a potentially suicidal one, but it’s an idea.

‘Alright’ I say, holding the die in my hand in front of me.

I drop it, and my friends immediately curse me.

‘Are you serious?’ Dean manages to utter before we’re all blinded by the light coming from the Pebble. I fall to my knees, unable to handle the burning sting in my eyes.

I hear the snake slithering around, I feel it near me. Licking up our scent.

‘Bad choice’ it says from above me.

Its body contracts around my neck, pulling me high into the branches. I’m still stunned by the light and am only now regaining vision, just when my air supply is being cut off. Great.

Every time I breathe it gets tighter, choking the life out of me. I hear a branch snap and I fall to the ground. I’m beginning to see clearly now, and notice Geirolf hacking away at the snake, which dodges his every attack. It lets go and slithers away, no doubt to plan another assault.

My breath is painful, yet the feeling of air in my lungs is heavenly.

‘Noyala, are you alright?’ Dean kneels next to me.

I try to get up, but end up face to face with him. A very awkward moment follows. Luckily, he blushes, then backs away quickly.

‘What did the Pebble do?’ I ask.

Sheila looks around her, but stops when she sees a horde of deer walking towards us.

‘You have granted us vast intellect and understanding of human language’ their alpha male says, ‘For that, we are thankful’.

The deer then gleefully frolic away after having giving us a basket of berries.

I can hear the Pebble sigh again, ‘I just want some wings’.