by Bruce Sentar
As a break in the screech descended, a thin, man-sized shadow seemed to appear standing on the back of one of the howling trolls, but then it disappeared the next second.
Dar wondered if the noise caused disorientation or hallucinations, as he tried to decide if he had really seen anything at all. But he kept his sword at the ready, trusting the blade more than his senses at the moment.
He pivoted around slowly, making sure to keep his back to a tree, while he tried to spot the shadow again. Sasha was also on guard, two of her ribbons plugging her ears. Based on her face, the threat was very real and also very dangerous.
Feeling the wind change slightly, Dar moved his sword in anticipation. Two blades collided with his sword. But, as he got a better look, he realized he wasn’t fighting blades but instead two long arms like a praying mantis.
The blades of its arm were a mottled grey but clearly as hard as the bronze sword; they even bit slightly into the metal.
It was hard to make out too much in the dim light, but this devil had gray leathery skin, which was covered in chitinous black armor. Arms locked against Dar’s blade, the devil lurched forward with its insect-like mouth, trying to bite him. It forced Dar to move away from having his back to the tree to properly dodge the needle-like mandibles that sprang from the corners of its cracked lips.
Dar blinked away the stench of its breath.
Phew, this thing needs to learn some dental hygiene.
The pressure of the arms against his sword and the give from his movement caused the devil to be able to push him back, causing Dar to start to fall backwards with the devil on top of him.
Dar used the momentum to turn it into a roll, managing to use his leg strength to kick the demon away, giving him a moment to get back on his feet before it attacked again.
“Use your dao!” Sasha yelled, and he felt like an idiot.
In the shock of this new creature, he had forgotten he had it available. Shaking it off, he focused back on the devil, smiling as he cycled his mana to power his dao.
Before the creature was able to disappear again, Dar threw out his hand, blasting it with heat.
The devil shrieked another of those shrill sounds. It took an odd stance, and the second its foot touched the forest floor, it shot a hundred feet back. There had been some damage; Dar noticed it limped, but it had avoided the majority of the blast.
“What was that?” Dar yelled over to Sasha.
“I don’t know! Do I look like I hunt devils for a living? I fucking make dresses!” Sasha was screaming, and Dar realized she was starting to panic. She had signed up to help defend the town to make a bit of money, but she had done it because of Dar’s skill. He had a feeling in the past she would have just run instead of fight.
Dar got back to his feet and rushed at the mantis-like devil, but it used whatever movement skill it had again, moving quickly towards Sasha, clearly sensing easier prey.
“Sasha, watch out.” Dar could barely track the beast; it was like trying to watch a race car.
Sasha’s eyes grew wide, but she didn’t freeze up. More ribbons than Dar had ever seen flowed around, wrapping her into a secure cocoon of silk. He continued charging towards them, not sure how long she could hold against the devil’s arms. Swords were a weakness.
The devil started stabbing into the silk ribbons as soon as it reached her, but luckily its blows seemed to get caught and slow it down from slashing too quickly.
Dar had no idea if Sasha was okay based on the depth of its strikes, but he had at least finally reached them to be able to help. He dropped his shoulder, going for a full-on tackle as he put full power into his legs for momentum.
The devil looked up from the silk cocoon just in time for Dar to catch the intelligence of its eyes as they widened in fear. He tackled the mantis to the ground, pinning it down below him and immediately positioning his hands above as he turned the heat up to max. He cooked the shit out of the devil, ignoring the smell.
“Dar,” Sasha shouted, shaking his shoulders.
Looking down, he realized the mantis was long dead. It was a charred version of what it had once been, and the forest floor around them was starting to curl away, with little flecks of flame starting to grow among the leaves.
Dar turned his attention to Sasha, looking her over quickly. She seemed to be fine, except for a gash on her arm that wasn’t very deep.
A stirring to his side caught his attention. The remaining trolls had started backing away, staring at the remaining cinders and dead devil. As they started to turn, Dar took a deep breath.
“You aren’t getting away that easily,” Dar grumbled. As he stood up, he wobbled a bit; he was feeling lightheaded. He had used his dao pretty heavily against the devil, and he could feel he had tapped himself pretty hard.
Making up his mind, he pursued them through the woods, Sasha moving by his side. She managed to entangle three of them while he picked off two more, circling back to help her attack the ones she had trapped.
As they finished, the surrounding forest was quiet. The fight had no doubt sent all the critters of the woods to ground.
“Let me see your arm.” Dar scooted Sasha closer.
Sasha smacked his hand away, already pulling out a reel of gauzy cloth from her bag. “I got it.”
As Dar watched, she moved slowly, trying to hide the winces as she attempted to do it one-handed.
He tried to give her a moment to come to her senses and swallow her stubborn pride as she kept repeating the same motion, but she didn’t. She just kept repeating the same motion, trying to hold it tight enough between her arm and body to wrap with the other arm. It just wasn’t working.
However, as he waited, she continued to try, starting to pivot her body away from him, clearly getting self-conscious at him watching.
Sighing, Dar could tell she was feeling sensitive, but she was being totally unreasonable. He couldn’t just let her keep struggling.
“No.” His voice came out firm enough to make Sasha pause, and he reached over to firmly take the gauze from her.
She went quiet as he reeled out the cloth, inspecting her arm. The cut wasn’t that deep; she would be fine without stitches, but it was bleeding pretty badly and needed to be cleaned.
He wrapped her arm as they sat in stiff silence. The tension in the air was stewing as he watched Sasha deal with whatever was going through her mind. Finally, her emotions bubbled over, and tears began dripping from the corner of her eyes.
He kept focused on his work, letting her work through her emotions. Soon small sobs escaped her, followed by little hiccups as she tried to catch her breath.
Not sure quite what to do, Dar finished the wrapping and looked up at her to wipe away the tears streaming down her face. Her watery eyes met his, and it was like a dam broke.
Sasha curled into him as the waterworks intensified.
He just pulled her close, letting her feel his warmth. Right now, he at least knew that she needed comfort, although he was still trying to figure out exactly what had led to this meltdown.
Women were apparently a mystery even in other worlds.
A while later, Cherry wandered into the area, coming from the direction of the discarded devil. As he looked up from Sasha, he saw Cherry take in Sasha’s posture and gesture that she’d give some space. She moved around quietly to not disturb them, collecting the bodies in vines, likely for him to use later.
As she wandered back off, Cherry made a few subtle gestures, letting him know the evidence of the burning was gone. He nodded his thanks, and she headed off back in the direction of the caravan.
Since Cherry had come to check on them, he assumed the fight with the gremlins must have gone well. But that also meant that more would come looking for them soon if they didn’t return.
Rubbing Sasha’s back, Dar leaned back a smidge to get a better look at her. Feeling him move, Sasha looked up at him, having to tilt her head way back to see him over the wide brim of her hat. She wiped away some of
the wetness on her cheeks, peering up at him. Her sobs had gone down to some quieter hiccups.
After a pause, she let out some garbled words he couldn’t understand. He gave her a reassuring smile, leaning down and kissing her forehead.
“It’s fine. We can talk about it later. Whenever you’re ready.”
She shook her head, clearly wanting to communicate with him. Taking a few deep, shaky breaths, she tried again.
“I’m weak.” She drew the statement out with a soft sob. “I’m weak. My dao is worthless in a dangerous situation, and you want to fight the devils. I can’t fight the devils.”
Sasha descended back into tears, but at least now he understood what had upset her so heavily.
She was concerned she wasn’t strong enough to fight devils because her dao wasn’t combat oriented. Her dao tended towards comfort, not brutality. But what he really didn’t get was how she tied that to not being a good fit for him.
“I think you’ve done great, Sasha.” He continued stroking her back. It was having a visible effect, her distress lessening. “You took on over a dozen trolls with me. You warned me in time to help and reacted quickly when you were in danger. But, yes, there are going to be things that you can’t do.”
“What if we encounter something like the hellhounds again? I was so worried this was going to be a repeat of that, where I was just dead weight while you fought for your life.”
“It wasn’t. We were a pretty badass team out there,” he reminded her, squeezing her into him as reassurance. She wasn’t weak, but the proud witch was worried about being dead weight. He tried to figure out what he could say to make her feel better.
“Besides, I have to admit, as a man there’s something satisfying in getting to defend my woman. I can find other fighters to fight beside me, but I only have one Sasha.”
“But—” she tried to argue.
Dar pressed a finger to her soft lips. “No buts. We’ll build out a place for ourselves, and you’ll find your place; I have no doubt. And your dao path has been so short. Who knows what other greater dao you’ll form or what you’ll make into your grand dao. There’s so many possibilities for our future.”
He leaned down, snuggling her in deeper to him before speaking again. “Here and now is us, alive, victorious by both our efforts. There is no reason for you to feel weak.”
She pressed herself into the crook of his neck and he could feel her face stretch into a small smile.
When she finally pulled her head back again, she looked up at him with uncertain eyes. Even a bit puffy and red, she was gorgeous. She searched his eyes, seeming to find whatever she was looking for as she broke into a larger smile.
Dar leaned down slowly, waiting to see if she stopped him, but she leaned forward as well. When he touched her pillowy lips, he had to stifle the deep moan he wanted to let out. Her lips were the softest he had ever kissed.
Her arms snaked around him like a scarf and pulled him in deeper to the kiss, letting her tongue wander in his. When he pulled back, she was flush. A few remaining tears still fell, but they were offset by the giant smile covering her face.
Dabbing the tears off her face, Sasha adjusted herself. “How do I look?”
“Great,” he lied; although she still looked beautiful, she was a bit disheveled.
She pinched her cheeks and smacked her face. “You are a terrible liar. I look like a mess, don’t I?”
Dar shrugged. “If anyone calls you a mess when we get back there, I’ll cook them where they stand.”
She laughed and smacked Dar. “Not necessary, but message received. You’ll be my big protective Lug.”
He smiled. She had used the nickname differently this time. It was full of more emotion and meaning now, a special name between the two of them.
He squeezed her one last time before lifting her off his lap. “Before everybody comes looking for us, I need to absorb these corpses.”
“Ooh! Like you did with the hellhounds? Can I watch this time?” Misery forgotten, Sasha’s eyes sparkled with scientific curiosity. But as she looked at the mound, confusion spread across her face. “How did they get like this?”
“Cherry piled them up while you were…” He cut himself off, not sure how to finish. But Sasha was already nodding, understanding what he meant.
Walking over to where he stood, she looked at the mound and then him. “Where do they go?”
“They…” He didn’t have a great explanation and he didn’t want to lie. “They go to feed a tree inside of me.” He started the process, pulling the bodies into his navel.
Sasha just nodded, as if that was a totally normal explanation. “What else does the tree need?”
“Bodies, weapons. It seems like it can eat almost anything. Oh! A shovel.” Dar remembered the implement; it would make his next job that much easier.
“We’ll get or buy one when we go back to the caravan. Speaking of, we should make sure they aren’t heading out without us.”
He nodded, finishing up with the current pile. “That would be wise. I don’t believe they’ll want to hang around too long after the attack.”
They got another few dozen yards before Dar stumbled on another pile that had been collected. This one was all gremlins. Sasha continued on, and he called out for her to stop so he could absorb the rest.
“You really have an appetite,” she commented, watching the scene for a second time, no less fascinated than the first.
“That I do,” he said, stepping out of the trees and seeing the caravan. They had already started moving, but it wouldn’t be much of a rush to catch up to them.
“Shall we?” He put out his arm for her, and she looked at it with slight confusion. Grabbing her arm, he wrapped it through his, leading her towards the caravan.
She smiled, walking with a slight bounce next to him, her hat occasionally hitting his shoulder as she moved.
Chapter 13
Dar and Sasha caught up to the caravan quickly. They were met with friendly waves from Amber and her friend, whom Dar realized he didn’t actually know the name of.
“Glad you see you back safely, milord.” Amber curtseyed. This time, it seemed like she’d been practicing.
Dar nodded towards her in acknowledgement as he took Cherry’s cart into his hands. “Glad to be back. Not too much damage done it looks like?”
“We lost Paul,” her friend said softly.
He didn’t know the man, but Dar gave her a solemn nod to his respects. “My condolences.”
“You two saved everyone though. I can’t believe you went into the forest to stop the trolls! You’re so brave.” Amber beamed and came up on Dar’s side, making sure to bump into him as she did so.
Sasha was back to her proud self, though if anybody looked closely, they’d see that her eyes were still a bit puffy. “Come with me; help point out your healer. I’d like to get a professional to look at my arm.”
Only then did Amber and her friend seem to see the bloody bandage. “Right away, miss! Right this way.”
The two of them doted over Sasha and headed over to a cart. A man was working from the back of the cart as the caravan moved. Several people were being seen to by the town's healer.
“Were those corpses helpful?” Cherry said in his ear.
Dar startled but did his best not to show it outwardly. “Don’t know yet, but I’m sure they will be.”
“Cherry?” She put some of the fruit up to his mouth.
He accepted the fruit, eating the tasty treat. “You know you don’t have to.”
“I like it, so hush. This isn’t all an act—it is how I’m wired. I can just actually use my brain some of the time.”
“Some of the time?” Dar teased.
The dryad let out an exasperated sigh and leaned her chin on his shoulder. “No one has talked to me like that in a while. I almost miss it, almost.”
Dar raised his hand, wiping away a bit of cherry juice from the side of his mouth and then putting it right on the tip o
f her nose. Cherry went cross-eyed watching his finger, and then she burst out laughing.
“Oh, Drasil above. Treating me like a child?”
He shrugged. “Just wanted you to loosen up a bit. Sometimes you can be a bit stiff.”
Cherry stuck her tongue out at him. “Better?”
“Much. Thank you.” He nodded sagely. “But I’ll know once I have time to rest if the corpses help. I really don’t know how this works.”
Cherry nodded, leaning into him again. “I have so many questions about what Lilith did to you. But are you Dar, the one I knew long ago?”
She had finally asked.
“No.” He could practically feel her wilt on his shoulder. “I’m his soul, but I lived another life, in another world, in another time. I don’t remember anything from your time or you, and I imagine that the experiences of that life have shaped me to be slightly different from the Dar you knew.”
“You’re his soul. Brought back?” Cherry asked, hope still filling her voice.
He nodded, her hair tickling his neck as he moved. “Yes. At least, that’s what Lilith and the spirit with her said when they pulled me from some river.”
“The River of Souls in the plane of death,” Cherry corrected.
The idea made Dar’s head spin. Other planes? He pushed that aside for now. “She implied that I might be able to do something about the devils and the Mo for good.”
“I’m sure she did,” Cherry sighed. “But even she couldn’t do it. She always did pin her hopes on you all those years. You never…”
She paused and her head turned slowly. “You never stepped onto a dao path.”
There was a moment of silence between the two of them.
“Well, I have now.”
“Yes… but you are his soul?” she asked one more time.
“I am.”
Cherry didn’t say anything, just pecked him on the cheek and pulled away.
He turned to figure out what that was meant to be, but she was gone. Dar frowned, but he had no doubt that Cherry could come back if she wanted. The news must have spooked her.
