Friends, foes and farmers

She was running. The shadows tried to grab her, but she wouldn’t let them. She had to get away. Her skills were no match for their kind. The dead. Her sleepless nights were plagued with images of their slain bodies. When succumbing to sleep, she was surrounded by them.

 

Must escape…Keira shook her head and tried to think straight. Pillars of swirling black smoke rose from the ground. The hearth she stood on gave way and revealed a pit of charred and mutilated figures. The scent of rotting corpses wafted through the thick air like a veil. The sky above her turned a menacing red. The moon…it’s bleeding…

Her assailants were gone. The assassin was trapped in this stark world. Her father wouldn’t save her now. Leon was gone. She had seen his body among the corpses.

“Lost, my assassin friend?” A cold but amused voice reached her ears. The dark wizard’s voice was coming from every corner of this nightmare of a dimension. The young sorcerer appeared before her in wisps of black smoke. A malicious smile formed on his lips.

Keira had no idea why, but hatred so strong took over her and blocked out every emotion she had. She was an assassin – a killer and nothing more. She unsheathed her dagger and threw it straight to his heart. It was her turn to smile as Vangz kneeled in shock.

“Who’s lost now?” The assassin grabbed a fistful of his dark hair and forced him to look into her eyes. What she saw would haunt her till waking life.

-

“Keira! Keira, wake up!” Cool was standing over her and nudging her carefully with a stick.

“What the HELL is that for?” Vangz snatched the stick and broke it in two.

“She…she’s a killer,” Cool reasoned. “I still want to live, you know.”

Keira, still stuck in her vivid nightmare, shook uncontrollably. “What’s happening?” Cool stepped back and allowed Vangz to examine her. As he laid a hand on her head, a red surge of energy pushed him back against a tree.

“It can’t be…” Vangz uttered. Cool tried to help him up, but the wizard swatted his hand away. “Don’t touch me!” The jester gasped in horror. Vangz’ eyes had turned a livid red. “Don’t even think of waking her up,” his mouth curved in a smile unlike all his others. “She needs the rest.”

Vangz stood up and made his way to the suffering assassin. Before any more harm could be done, Cool acted quickly and grappled the wizard to the ground. “What are you doing?!!” Cool’s anger was clear.

There was nothing left to do but knock some sense into the wizard. And this, Cool did. Vangz wasn’t struggling at all. He simply watched the jester’s wasted efforts. A knuckle collided with his left cheek. The wizard spat out blood and snarled, but there was no more sadistic hunger in his eyes. His normally black eyes returned. “Seneca…”

He pushed a relieved and merry Cool out of the way and rushed over to the unconscious assassin. The jester expected him to produce a vial or recite an incantation. To his surprise, however, Vangz slapped the girl smartly across the cheek.

Keira awoke with a start. Her expression was that of fear and anger. “You…” Cool quickly pulled Vangz out of the way before the assassin could stab him. Her knives were ready. Cool put himself in front of her and pleaded.

“Keira, don’t do this,” and added with a hint of annoyance “Too much attempted killings have happened already. You were only dreaming okay?”

Vangz was rubbing his cheek. “B*****d,” Keira lowered her defence and remembered. Yes, it was only a dream. The wizard may be crude and sarcastic, but he was an ally. He wasn’t…what he was in her nightmare.

She lowered her knives and slumped next to the irritated Vangz. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah yeah,” he rummaged in his slime-drenched cloak for a pain-reliever. “It’s a miracle I didn’t bleed,” he sneered at Cool. “Meaning your punch was weak!”

“I was trying not to hurt you!” Cool yelled back. “You’re welcome by the way! Geez.”

“Did I miss something here?” Keira asked. Cool was about to tell her, but Vangz cut him off.

“Cool punched me awake,” he lied. The jester kept silent and nodded in agreement. He felt that Vangz would try his best to suppress another deadly outburst.

Keira removed her belt of knives and made her way to the inviting hot spring in front of them. “And you slapped me awake. You’re lucky I owe you my life…or else.”

Later on, Vangz and Cool soaked in the lower pool. Keira wisely chose the higher one. “Why can’t we be in the higher hot spring?” Cool complained.

“Because you’ll be able to view me quite well in the lower one,” Keira replied coldly.

“That’s unfair! You can see us from up there!” the jester continued whining.

“No, thank you. I have a husband, if you remember.” She leaned back and allowed the soothing heat cleanse her and calm her mind.

“Jester, keep away from me,” Vangz growled. “Stay on your side. This pool is big enough for the both of us!”

“Call me COOL!” the jester snapped. “So what do I call that other side of you?” he whispered in displeasure. With this unwelcome statement, Vangz put a finger to the water and sent a wicked surprise to Cool. The younger man yelped as he was surrounded by ferocious crabs.

“What’s going on down there?!” Keira yelled. Her relaxation was being interrupted by the noisy men.

“Crabs don’t live in hot springs!!!” Cool edged closer to the rim of the spring.

Vangz laughed a naughty laugh. “Apparently, they do now!”

“Cut it out! Cut it out!” Cool quickly scrambled out of the water. “Stop, I say!”

“I was wrong,” Vangz put his arms behind his head and sunk lower into the warmth. “This pool isn’t big enough for the both of us. Cheerio, cool.”

“Wh-where are my clothes?” Cool searched frantically around for his orange and yellow tinted suit, but in vain. “WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES, YOU WIZARD?!!!”

“How should I – “ Vangz never finished his sentence, for he nodded off into a deep sleep. He was too exhausted.

“Vangz! VANGZ! I need my damn clothes!” Cool jumped back into the pool as soon as he noticed the napping wizard. Unfortunately, the dark wizard’s magic didn’t wear off. The crabs started attacking the poor jester.

“DON’T EVEN THINK OF COMING UP HERE!” Keira warned. “My knives are next to my pool! I won’t hesitate, I say!”

“So what in griffin’s name am I supposed to do here?!” Cool ducked behind some bushes. “I’m cold and butt-naked in this forest! Our friend Vangz is fast asleep!”

“Slap him awake,” Keira soaked her slimy clothes in the water and screamed as the hot spring turned a sickly green colour. “No way am I staying here!”

Cool grinned at the thought of her leaping out of the pool any second now. “Come join me here then!”

“Never in a million years!” She scooped a handful of the slimy water and dropped it on the wizard in the pool below. “Wake up, wizzy!”

Vangz was dreaming….he was flying…SPLAT.

“DAMN IT! WHAT THE F – ” Vangz woke and snapped his fingers. The now multiplying crabs were gone. He wiped the slime away from his hair and rinsed it in the water. Both pools were green with slime.

“SENECA!” Vangz yelled. He called himself down and whispered, “Expurgo “

The hot spring looked as if it was never stained with green. “Seneca! It is unwise to wake me!”

“Could you um…remove the slime here too?” Keira asked in her smallest voice. “My clothes are um…drenched in them…of course you don’t need to come up here…”

“Yeah, and while you’re at it, could you please return my clothes?” Cool tried his best to be nice. It was hard, considering the damage Vangz did and almost did.

“Fine. But never piss me off as I sleep! Ever again!” Vangz turned to the jester hidden in the bushes. “That goes for you too! Don’t piss me off when I’m awake!”

-

After clearing up and dressing, the trio reached the edge of the forest. “We need to cross the fields before arriving at Root Forest.” Cool informed them. “Better get started.”

“Just a minute,” Keira held him back and forcibly faced him to Vangz. “His clothes are too bright and eye-catching. Ours are too dark and suspicious.”

“I get your point,” Vangz whipped up a spell. “We need to adapt to the farm-folk…although I don’t care much for their taste.”

Vangz’ long black cape slowly turned an earthy brown from thread to thread. Keira’s and Cool’s clothes did the same. The assassin drew out her knife and swiftly cut holes for each clothing item, giving them a weary and worn look.

“Step on them. Farmers are filthy,” Vangz walked by the busy assassin and said in a low but sincere voice, “I didn’t mean to slap you. I wasn’t…quite myself yet…”

Before Keira could say something, he turned his back and made his way to the lower lands. “Hurry, you slow-pokes. I won’t want to waste another day on foot.”

She didn’t understand him. She never did. Cool kept his silence. He would, for some time.