I could see the tall grass waving in the summer breeze above me, I could see the night time birds flying, but there was nothing. Had I gone deaf? I clapped my hands together, I was not deaf, there was no vibration at all. Like something was canceling it out altogether. Hence why I couldn’t speak. Then it started to rain, but upon closer look at the droplets that landed on me, it was not water. Water was not dark and smelled of copper. It was blood.
Like a shadow in the night, I saw it. A helm of darkness blacker than black. Its visor was looking away from me and I dropped to the ground and felt my boot squish into the pile I had just left behind. I swore, knowing they would not hear me. But the helmed head snapped my way, did it just hear me?
I froze on the ground, trying not to even breathe, more helms came into view and then I saw a dark hand make a chopping motion. They rushed over me, and I rolled to protect my face from their boots. I was pounded by their feet, and my health dropped with ever step. One even tripped over me, but kept going, sending a bolt of lightning though my body. A broken rib icon flashed in my vision, and I swore again from the pain. That was all I knew now, pain and hardship. I fucking hated this game.
Gingerly, I rose to my knees and chanced a look through the grass. The camp was awash of fire and flame, shadows of people fighting could be seen and I took the chance for what it was. It was time to bid Vexi and Torga adios. With my middle finger in the air, I climbed the rest of the way to my feet and headed west. South and north were death, east was the sea, and I stopped in tracks after a few hundred yards. North was death? How did I know that, how did I know these people would kill me, a runaway slave. They might harbor me...I knew it was a risk, but without food, water or even an animal, west would be just as much death as any of the other options. “Fuck it.” This time I heard my voice and decided to seal my fate. “Eat shit and die, VEXI!”
Just as the words left my mouth, the roar of the fire and the screams of the dying could be heard. My heart and mind were happy, I would have laughed if I had been able to. Like a cripple, I cut my way through the tall grass. Angling for the western side of the stone walls. There had to be some way in, and if I had to swim in from the sea, I would. There was a sparse cropping of trees and I headed toward it, once there, I looked back over my shoulder to make sure no one was following. The battle was still raging and I knew I didn’t have much time. These trees would be like a beacon once they knew I was gone.
Through the pain I pushed on, my endurance bar plummeted to ten percent and I knew if I hit five, I would be in trouble. I ducked down over a small rise and laid in the grass, trying desperately to ease my labored breathing. After a time, my bar was back to twenty percent and I low crawled my way through the grass as carefully as I could. I found that if I tucked my elbows into my sides, it was easier to snake through the grass than crawl and it cost a lot less endurance doing it that way. A man possessed, I found my rhythm, snake until my bar hit ten, and then rest until it refilled. Through the night, this is what I did, and when the sun started to rise, I chanced a peek at my location. But there was nothing in front of me. “The fuck?” When I looked behind me, I saw the walled city was a good mile back.
Worse, was that I could see riders circling the walls, and they weren’t wearing gleaming armor. “Ha, I'm fucked.” There was nothing on three sides of me but endless grass and now the city would be suicide to go back to. Like a dumbass, I ran, and my slave timer would reset as soon as they caught me. I knew they would catch me, sooner or later, Vexi was anything but dumb and I had just spit in her face. One of their assassins could be hot on my trail this very moment and I wouldn’t even know they were there. Not with their stealth technique. “Fuck, fuck doubly fucked. Death or slavery dude, which one?” I had my fill of being a slave, especially after yesterday.
“Death it is.” I dropped back down to the ground and started snaking all over again. The hours passed as I rinsed and repeated, sometime around midday, I crossed a small stream and drank my fill. It tasted foul and had a smell, but water was water. And my endurance bar climbed to forty percent. I also found a few wild vegetables on the bank and satisfied my growling stomach. All in all, I was back up to seventy. I continued snaking until a few fingers from night fall, and took a prolonged rest. I didn’t dare sleep, I only rested my tired eyes and before I knew it, one of my snores stirred me from my slumber.
“Goddess damn me for my stupidity! Wait, what?” I shook my head, trying to clear out the moron in my head. I didn’t have time for this, and I quickly defecated and looked to the south. The city was but a tiny glow in the darkness, but from burning or defense, I didn’t have the slightest clue. There was nothing around me, not for miles, and I decided I had enough crawling in the grass. I took off at a fast-paced walk, mindful of the ground dwelling animal holes. When the moon was over head, I cut east toward the sea, if there was a town close by, it would be there.
But when I got to the sea, I found that the ocean was a good hundred feet below me, and the cliffs went on for miles in both directions. “Never easy, is it?” Later I found a cave to hole up in and rested as best as I could on the rocky ground. I slept long into the morning and my endurance bar was nearly full. I felt better than I had in days, but knew I could not become idle, that day I went back to playing snakey snake, just in case they were closing on me and the day was windy enough to cause the grass to bend.
“Let’s get started!” I said as I stretched my shoulders.
A week later, my clothes were in tatters, I was filthier than I ever had been before, and I loved it. I was free, no demonic women running my life, no responsibility save for myself. It was great, the irony was not lost on me and I had a good chuckle from it. I had to become a slave to realize how free I was. I had to run away to feel alive and every moment became precious, for I could feel there was something or someone out there hunting me. Like my brain had an itch on the back side of my head and it was growing with each passing day.
I made due with what nature provided, there was stuff to eat everywhere, if you took a moment to look. Bugs, snails, wild plants. Water was harder to find, and I found that if I dug down at certain, fluffy trees as I called them, water was only a few feet away. It tasted like dirt, but it was wet enough to get me by. My routine became second nature, and I was like a wild beast in my movements. Never staying more than a few minutes in each area unless I was sleeping and always covered my tracks or water holes. I was always on the move, for I could never get rid of that itch.
One afternoon, I snaked my way over a rise, and found a sprawling city below me. The gates were up and guards were walking the battlements, but on the far side, I could see people coming and going from the city. My excitement grew to unprecedented amounts, I almost stood and sprinted down, but I caught myself before I lost control. I had to be smart about this, the campaign was still on and if I didn’t play my cards right, who knew what would happen.
I snake crawled east toward the cliffs and then north until I hit the road. I raised to my knees and looked through the grass. The road was mostly clear of people and I acted as if I had just taken a dump. Like I owned it, I strode upon the road like I was meant to be there. But the looks from the walking pedestrians said otherwise. My doubts chased away any confidence I had when I saw a mounted patrol headed my way. I was torn between diving back into the grass or running for help, but time was running out and I decided to just play it cool for the moment.
They slowed when they saw my appearance and the lead man held up his hand, signaling for them to stop. “State your name and purpose, stranger.”
“My name his Hedge Lord Jaeger Persik, of Atheria. What I am doing, well, that's a long story. Let me just say if you want to hear the tale, I would happily tell you on the other side of those thick walls.”
“Atheria, I have never heard of it.” His hand went to his sword hilt, “are you one of the invaders?”
“Really,” I motioned toward myself in disbelief. “Do I look like an invader?�
�� His hand loosened on the grip. “I am a runaway slave,” I held up my finger, “and I was brought here by those invaders. Not by choice, I might add.” Swords were drawn, “did I say something wrong?” My answer was a foot to my face and my body was not strong enough to take the blow.
Goddess be merciful, I hated this fucking game!
I awoke in a cell, my head pounding and a green prompt flashing in my vision.
***You are Poisoned - Fazen Tree Venom. Drink from the roots to put off the effects or Find the antidote. You have four hours until death***
“Well fuck me sideways.” I said when I read the prompt. I tried to move my arms, but found them in shackles above my head. “Goddess damn me for a fool. There I go again, goddess this, may she watch over me that, what the fuck is wrong with me?”
“You're enlightened, touched and favored by the gods. In your case, it would seem a goddess, but the question is, which one?” I looked up to see a man as ragged as I felt, with a grizzly beard of grey and white strains. A bald head and face that looked as crazy as how I was speaking lately. “I too find myself enlightened, but for an entirely different reason. You see, I was once a Clergyman of the God Igor, blessed as he may be, he never touched me once. So, I found my enlightenment in other ways. Mostly, drinking from the roots of the Fazen Trees. Isn’t life grand.”
“It certainly is!” I shouted. “Wait, what, no its really...is a blessing to be alive...no that’s not it.”
“Don’t fight the teachings of the wise roots, lad. It only increases the pain.” He grinned at me like he was high on something. “Don’t you worry none, the medic will be along shortly with the medicine. I will be released and you will hang, isn’t that nice of them, to send you off to your goddess so you can finally meet her.”
“I long for it!” GODDESS DAMN IT! Why wouldn't my mouth say what I wanted it too?
“Happy to hear it. May I know why your goddess is so pleasant?”
“Oh yes, you may, you see, when I was at death's door, she hugged me so tight, warm and kind. All my fears melted away, and she took care of me, she is so great!” I gave up, my control over my mouth was gone, but that terrible itch was driving me crazy. “She is with me, I can feel her in everything, tree, flower, stone, I love her will all my soul.”
“Ah to be in love, lucky for you it is with a goddess and not a god. I would love to meet her, do you know her name?”
“Me too, but no I don’t. Her name eludes me even now, I want to thank her for what she had done for me. But...I can’t.”
“You can, if you get one request, go to the temple of Igor, ask the head Cleric for help in finding your goddess. They will perform a spell on you and she will be revealed, well her name at least. And you can at least die knowing her name before you met her.”
“Oh, I am truly blessed, thank you kind sir.” We jabbered on for another hour before a woman in a brown hooded cloak came into cell. She inspected each of us, and we both commented on how good of a job she was doing. Whatever this poison was, I disliked it, very, very much. It made me a rambling fool. She then held up a small cup of fluid to my mouth and her kind voice said, “drink to meet your goddess.”
Needless to say, I did without thought, and it tasted like how shoes smelled. But my wayward body sucked it down greedily. “Sleep kind sirs, may your deities watch over you.”
“She’s so nice, I love her.” I slurred stupidly.
“Me too,” the crazy man said. As the last of his words were out of his mouth, my head sank into my chest and that was all she wrote. I was out like a light.
When I came to, I had been bathed, clothed, but shackles were still on my wrists. I was in a small room with a guard standing at the door. My head felt better and the itch was gone, it must have been from poison, maybe with the craziness it made me paranoid too? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t about to ask the guard a stupid question like that. I would never drink from another fuzzy tree’s roots ever again. When the guard saw that I was awake, he pounded on the door twice, and resumed his stance. A slot in the door opened and a tray was slid through, there was a bowl of something that made my mouth instantly water, and the guard passed it over to me.
I barely tasted it, for once the soup hit my mouth, I was swallowing before I could even chew. “Hungry eh?” His accent was heavy, like it was not his first language.
“I’ve been out in the grasslands for over a week.” I stated before I chugged down the water in the glass.
“Where?”
“South, I was a slave in one of the guilds who invaded. The soldiers from the city attacked one night and I got away.” I didn’t mean to keep talking, but what did it matter now? I was to be hung or imprisoned. The truth might not set me free, but I would be damned if a lie got me killed.
“South, you mean Raegin Glade? That's more than a week’s walk from here, and dangerous through the grass. You mean to tell me you not only made it through the deadliest place in all of Norkia, but did it poisoned and in just one week? I’ve heard some tall tales in my time, but that takes the bucket.”
I didn’t feel like arguing with him, so I just shrugged my shoulders. “It was hard to tell the time, and it wasn’t like I was keeping track of the days. Not with all the snaking I did through the grass.”
“Snaking?” He questioned.
I demonstrated what I had done on the ground and got back up. “Yeah, snaking. The guild would be chasing me, so yes. It was the easiest way to move without being seen. Sometimes I would walk at night but that was always near the cliffs.”
“Cliffs? You know the cliffs are over twenty miles from here?”
“Believe me or not, I don’t care. I was poisoned and my mind was messed up so, it might have been longer. Tell me, is the Campaign still going on?”
“Campaign?” He seemed confused by the word, “you mean the invasion, we have about a week left. Hence why we have geared up our patrols.”
There was a definite time lapse in my memory. Had I slept for days instead of just a night? The questions were too many and I couldn’t honestly answer them. “So, what are you going to do with me then?”
“The Lord will hear your story in an hour, during court, he will decide from there.”
“Mind if I sleep, I am really tired?”
“Go ahead.”
I was pulled before the court, a place of sand stone and tiled murals on the walls. One was of a giant snake that looked like more of a cobra, leopard mix, and I almost laughed how that might have been after me. But all the mirth drained from me when I saw the Lord seated upon his woven grass throne.
I bowed from the waist, and held the pose until he told me to recover. Hopefully these customs were the same here as they were in Atheria. “Hedge Lord Persik, is that what you call yourself?”
“It is my lord.” I said, still bowed. Hana had been adamite about not breaking the respect to early.
“You may recover, and thank you for showing me the proper respect. You invaders, are not what I would call, respectful.”
“Alas, my lord, I was a slave amongst them, stolen from my lands to serve as a camp aide. I was beaten, tortured, and berated in the worst of ways, all manners unbecoming to nobility.” I was laying it on thick, but I hoped he would see that I was not just pretending here.
“You have proof, of your nobility?”
“I do, if you but release my right hand, I would be more than happy to retrieve my signet ring.”
“Do it.” His voice was full of authority, and the guards surrounded me at sword point. I didn’t blame them, I did have a knife in my pouch. I focused my mind on the ring and it appeared in my hand. I held it up for him to see. “Bring it here.” A guard snatched it from me and took it up to his lord. He held the ring in his hands for a moment and then commanded. “Stand down, I pray you forgive my distrust, Lord Persik, but you are not the first inv... person from your lands that we have caught.”
The ring was brought back to me and I pl
aced it back in my pouch. “I was stolen from my land, my lord. Please believe me, I would never take part in a thing such as this invasion. I am but a farmer, a man of my land. I care nothing for wars or conflicts, I just want to be left alone and grow my crops.”
His laughter boomed throughout the hall, and the other assembled gentry joined in. I was perplexed at their laughter, and took it with as much dignity as I had left. When he got control of himself, he tried to wave away his laughter. “Apologies Lord Persik, but I have never heard such cowardly mutterings in all my life.” His eyes grew hard and bore into me with ill intent. “If I ever heard one of my vassals spout such nonsense, I would have them executed. Be relieved that you are not one of my vassals.”
I swallowed at the underlying tone in his words. “You may harbor in the safety of my walls, coward, until this invasion is over. Then you will leave my lands, and never return. I do not want your spinelessness rubbing off on my people. Take him away.”
I was force marched to the gates of the keep, where the guard said, “there is an Inn on the far side of the city, I would suggest you stay out of sight of my lord. He does not like your type in his city.”
“Then point me to where I can buy a horse and find another.” My anger getting the better of me. I was tired of being played, by players and NPCs alike.
“Ah we hurt your feelings, poor coward.” He laughed. “You will find a stable to the north of the city and the eastern road will take you to a fork. But we are the last freestanding city left, you will not find any safety in the grasslands.”
I waved away his comment, I would rather take my chances out in the wilds than stay in this city. That the Lord would be seeking me out, I knew my time was limited here, it might not be tonight, but it would be one night. A dick like that did not like to keep promises.
Noble Farmer Page 9
