Rayne

by Blake Severson

  Rayne took the lead and kept an eye on their surroundings. Libby stayed close to him during the trip, and they had an uneventful first few days of travel. Libby had even started to smile again and liked to talk about random things they saw as they went. She loved nature and being in the city. She was rarely ever able to see much of it. Out here, she relished the chance to talk to Rayne about all the different plants and animals they spotted as they traveled.

  They even got the chance to walk over a few bridge crossings and had to stop at one that had a clear river under it. Libby was in awe of the clear water, and she loved to watch the fish as they swam around below them. Rayne was in no hurry to get to their destination, so he allowed her to stay and enjoy herself at the bridge.

  They traveled during the daylight hours and would end up setting up a small bedroll for them to share in the evenings. It was all they had to work with, so they made due. With only two of them, they ran the risk of being attacked in the night, but they needed their sleep, and Libby would not be a good choice to stand guard for any length of time.

  Rayne caught her slowing down and looking drained after they had left, but he had chalked it up to fatigue from traveling so much. His sister had never done any traveling before, and Rayne suspected it was hard on her. By the third night, however, she was burning up, and Rayne had to check more closely. He examined the cuts she had sustained from their father and saw they were angry and red. The swelling to them looked bad, and he knew immediately there was an infection in there.

  “Why didn’t you tell me something was wrong?” He gently asked her as he held her close that night.

  “You are already doing everything for me, and I didn’t want to burden you more,” she told him quietly.

  “I promised to keep you safe, and I intend to. I’ll find someone who can fix this.” He said resolutely as he held her close. Tears started to flow from his eyes as he worried about being stuck in the countryside while his sister died of an infection. He had to find someone who would help them.

  It filled his night with terrible thoughts and ensured he got almost no sleep. The morning dawned, and her condition had gotten no better. Rayne hoped there would be a small town they could reach today to get help. That day was a struggle as Rayne had to walk with his sister to ensure she could travel. By midday, he ended up having to carry her on his back. She was a small thing and didn’t weigh a lot, but it was still a fair length of distance to cover.

  The sun was falling as he caught sight of a farmhouse in the distance. It wasn’t exactly a town, but any shelter would be welcome. He only hoped the people living there would be willing to help. He trudged his way to the door and raised his hand to knock when the door flew open, and an older man stood in front of him.

  The man was holding an iron pitchfork that appeared to be weathered and well used. His head was bald, and he had a scar on his left cheek that stretched all the way to his jawline. His deep brown eyes bore into Rayne and made him want to shrink back. The man wasn’t large, but he looked like a scrapper, and Rayne knew muscles gained from hard work were easily disguised.

  “What do you want?” The man asked in a gruff tone.

  “I am sorry to bother you, sir, but I was looking for help. My sister and I are traveling to Seora, and during our trip, she has come down with an infection. Is there any way you can help us? I can work to cover any expense it may be to you,” Rayne offered hopefully.

  “Can’t help you, son, we have too many problems of our own to deal with.” The man said in a gruff tone.

  “Oh, hush, you old coot,” said a female voice from behind him. “Have you forgotten your decency over the years?”

  “We can’t help them. There are enough problems here already, and we don’t need to add more.” The man told Marge.

  “Nonsense. We need to help these two. We can’t turn away those in need. Just because the world has descended into hell doesn’t mean we have to act like demons.” She told him in a firm tone that would allow no further argument.

  Jeff shook his head but backed up as a gentle woman approached. She looked to be in her thirties and had light brown hair that fell to her waist. Her tiny button nose and green eyes gave her face a delightful appearance.

  She looked at Libby on his back and frowned. “Bring her in at once.” She said without hesitating. He followed the woman into a room in the back, and she directed him to lay Libby on the bed. Marge immediately started checking on her by placing her hand on Libby’s head and checking on her breathing. Rayne stepped forward and showed her the infected cuts, and the woman hissed.

  “Damn, the infection has set in good. How did it get this bad?” She asked Rayne in anger.

  He held his head down in shame. “We’ve been traveling from Esmere, and she hadn’t told me they were getting infected. I knew she had the cuts on her, but she never spoke up. I only noticed last night when she came down with a fever.”

  Marge’s face softened at that. “It’s okay, dear. I’ll get her fixed up, but you will need to stay here for a few days until she is better. My name is Marge, and that big lug over there is Jeff.”

  Rayne smiled a bit at her motherly attitude. “I’m Rayne, and she’s my sister Libby.”

  Marge smiled and nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Why don’t you and Jeff find something to keep you busy? I need to tend to her, and it is no place for a man to be while I get her cleaned up.”

  Rayne nodded in understanding and turned to see Jeff looking on in concern. From the view on his face, Rayne could tell the man was genuinely worried about Libby. It was odd since he had tried to turn them away earlier. His eyes met Rayne, and they hardened again as he nodded for him to follow.

  They walked outside as Rayne followed the man in silence. They entered a barn adjacent to the house, and Rayne looked around as his eyes adjusted to the light. The place was barren. There were a couple of small bags of seed in one corner, but judging by the trampled mess around it, there had been much more than that before. A couple of bales of hay lay in a haphazard bundle in the corner and were no longer properly tied up. He was trying to get a feel for what was happening when Jeff turned to him.

  “I’m sorry for your predicament, but I worry you may have made your situation worse. As you can see from this barn, we have almost nothing in the way of food or even what is necessary to plant much more. Marge and I have been working hard to keep this place going and had even managed to get a good surplus set aside for emergencies, but over the last week, we have been getting attacked from some unknown force. I am not a fighter, so they have been largely unopposed as they come onto the property and steal out of our barn. I fear it won’t be much longer until they take all that we have. I am already so short on seed that I will barely be able to plant enough food to cover what the city will require from us, leaving nothing left for Marge and myself.”

  Rayne perked up at this. The man had a problem that Rayne could actually work on. With no skills, Rayne was useless on a farm, but if he needed to retrieve some stolen items and stop a group from attacking these good people, then that was a different story.

  Rayne looked to Jeff. “You took us in, and Marge is helping my sister. I will help you solve your problem.”

  “How do you plan on doing that? You look too young to be much of a fighter,” Jeff said, incredulously.

  “I have my own set of skills and have been in plenty of fights. Do you know what or who has been robbing you?”

  The man looked at his feet. “I think they are lizardmen. It is always dark when they come out, so it is hard to tell for sure but the noises and the way they move lead me to believe that. I have also seen glimpses of something that looks like scales when they are moving from place to place. The only thing I know of that are scaled, and that large are lizardmen.”

  “Sounds like a good assessment,” Rayne told him. He had never seen one of the lizardmen before, but the man’s summary definitely sounded like that was the case.

  “I didn’t th
ink they came to the surface very often? Is there an underground cave entrance somewhere nearby?”

  Jeff thought about it for a bit before he nodded. “There was an old mine that was sealed up about ten years ago. It is a little less than a mile from here to the southeast. They may have found their way into that mine and then made their way to the surface. I have little to offer, but I would greatly appreciate it if you can take care of this problem for me. I can make sure your sister is safe and well cared for.”

  Clearing the Scales

  Requirements: Unknown

  Rewards: 6,000 experience, protect your sister.

  Description: Jeff has asked you to investigate the location the lizardmen are coming from and put a stop to their raids.

  ● 25% experience bonus if his goods are returned.

  Do you wish to accept this quest? Y/N

  Rayne acknowledged the quest and nodded to Jeff.

  “You have helped me in my time of need, so I will help you. It is only fair. Let me check on my sister, and I will ensure I have everything ready for my journey. I’ll stick around tonight and wait for them to show up. It will be easier for me to follow them back to where they came from than to aimlessly wander through an unfamiliar land.” Rayne told him.

  Jeff looked unsure about that but nodded his head in agreement. They made their way back into the house and saw that Marge had Libby cleaned up and had wrapped the cuts up. She was now resting on the bed and covered in a blanket.

  “I put a poultice I am good with on the cuts to help get rid of the infection. She should be doing better by tomorrow, but it will take a couple of days for it to work its way out of her system completely.”

  “Thank you, Marge. It means the world to me. I will get a bit of rest before nightfall if you don’t mind. It has been a stressful day.” Rayne told her.

  “Of course, dear. Get yourself some sleep,” she breathed, and she moved away with Jeff.

  Rayne made his way to Libby’s side and saw that she looked comfortable in the bed. He sat next to the bed and leaned back against the wall. With his restless night, he was extremely tired, and it wasn’t long before he drifted off to sleep.

  ◆◆◆

  Rayne was shaken awake lightly by Jeff. The man looked sympathetic to Rayne’s drowsiness, but he also knew what Rayne intended to do.

  “They have arrived. It looks like they are out in the barn again, scurrying around.” Jeff told him.

  Rayne nodded his understanding and went to the window. There was enough moonlight out for him to see vague details, but that was all he needed. His training in the city had allowed him a better night vision, and he knew the nuances to pay attention to.

  The occasional glitter of scales shown through the pale moonlight as he looked at the thieves. Judging by his quick glimpses, Jeff was probably correct about them being lizardmen. Rayne turned to look at Jeff.

  “Keep her safe.” He told him with absolute resolve on his face.

  Jeff nodded his agreement, and Rayne turned for the back door. He left the back of the house quietly. As he rounded the corner, he saw the lizardmen in question. It was still hard to see much detail on them, but it would be enough for him to follow them.

  They rummaged around in the building and were making all kinds of noise. They were definitely not being stealthy about their business. After an undetermined amount of time, they all exited the building. One of them had a sack over its shoulder that appeared to contain some of the few supplies that had remained in the building. Jeff hadn’t wanted to bring them in the house for fear the lizardmen would try to enter there to take them.

  The lizardmen scanned their surroundings and left in a rush. They were quick for their size, but Rayne easily kept pace with them. He could even do it while staying somewhat concealed. They continued for what felt like an hour before Rayne saw a slight rise in front of him. There was an odd-looking mountain that just appeared in the flat surrounding land. It stood on its own with sheer sides facing him. Rayne didn’t know if this mountain had a sloped back or not. It looked like someone just punched a chunk of the ground straight up out of the dirt. On the cliff face that they were approaching was a cave entrance. The lizardmen neared this entrance, and Rayne took cover farther away from them against one part of this sheer cliff.

  Rayne watched with careful attention as they looked around and then ducked into the cave entrance. What was especially interesting was the way they had entered. Rayne had seen that each of them entered the cave with the exact same footsteps in precisely the same locations. That set off alarm bells in Rayne’s head.

  Being a thief in the city, seeing traps was not uncommon. Most of them were harmless and more for noise or alarms than anything. Rayne was willing to bet a trap here would be deadly, though. When he was sure the lizardmen were far enough into the cave, he silently crept to the entrance. It was dark in the area, and the cave entrance was almost pitch black. He made out the outlines of the tunnel walls but not much else.

  Luckily, the place he had seen the lizardmen creeping around was not in the pitch black of the entrance. He spotted the area they had been skirting and crouched down low to examine it carefully. It took him some time to examine the area thoroughly. When he was just about to give up and tell himself he was imagining things, he saw something odd about the spot. There was a slight rise in the ground on the two areas that the lizardmen had avoided.

  Taking one of his blades, he ran the tip along the edge of one mound. The dirt fell away easily, and he saw something contained underneath. He repeated this process around the entire mound until he spotted a thin piece of wood resting on top of an equally thin wooden box. There was no tripwire or anything else he could see in the area that he thought might cause this trap to go off. Carefully, he lifted the top off of the thin wooden box. It was plain that the box itself was designed to collapse when weight was put on the top piece.

  Inside the box was a jar about the size of his first. It was completely sealed. He picked up the jar carefully and used Identify.

  Item:

  Jar of Immolation

  Durability: 75/80

  Damage: 50-80

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Quality: Well Crafted

  Weight: 1.0 kg

  Traits: A jar containing volatile chemicals that have been separated. When this jar is broken, the chemicals will mix and react violently, causing fire damage to nearby people and structures.

  That is more like it. Rayne thought to himself. It was rare to see a potion of this quality. Rayne wasn’t sure what it said on behalf of humans that lizardmen had these items, but they didn’t. The jar would be dangerous if it went off, but he was sure he would need it before this trip was over. He repeated the same process with the other mound and found an identical Jar of Immolation. Armed with two of these, he had a little more confidence that he could take care of these lizardmen.

  Rayne made his way into the cave entrance and started traveling further into the darkness. He barely made out some of the cavern walls as he crept deeper. There was barely enough light coming in from outside to get even a vague outline in his senses. The further in he made it, the worse the darkness got. After two turns in the cave, he had considered lighting a torch and forgoing the consequences. He had a small tinderbox that he always kept on him for such an emergency.

  The third turn in the cave changed everything. As soon as he rounded the corner, he froze in place. Ahead of him, down the tunnel, the path started to lighten. Still not seeing anything ahead of him, he slowly continued his trek. The next bend in the path revealed the reasoning behind this. The cave itself had torches lit here. To Rayne’s relief, the ventilation tunnels were still working in this cave, or the smoke would be unbearable.

  Another thing of interest was the warmth. This room was much warmer than the caves he had traveled through. The warmth seemed to fit the wants of lizards now that Rayne thought about it. When it got cold, they would commonly slow down. He had also seen many lizard bathing in the su
n outside on a warm day. They weren’t as nocturnal as he had thought.

  In the room, two lizardmen were looking at each other, and Rayne assumed they were communicating. All he heard were odd hissing and clacking noises coming from them, but the noises were coming from each of them in turn. Rayne made his way further in. Finding a small stone near his feet, he activated one of his abilities as he threw the stone to land on the opposite side of the lizardmen.

  You have activated Distract.

  The two lizardmen turned to check on the noise as Rayne quickly covered the distance with his blades free. He made it to the closest one and skewered it in the back with both blades. One punched into the lung on the left side while the other took the kidney on the lower back. Or at least Rayne hoped that was the case. He had no idea if their anatomy was the same as humans.

  You have dealt 200 damage to Lizardman (1) (Level 12) (Critical Strike) (Stealth Strike) (Mortal Blow) with Dual Strike.

  This lizardman he stabbed couldn’t get any sound out from the pain of the attack. He slumped to the ground as Rayne worked his way to the next one. This one was turning as Rayne closed the distance, and Rayne got a blade into its right side.

  You have dealt 100 damage to Lizardman (2) (Level 12) (Critical Strike) with Iron Stiletto Dagger.

  The thing hissed in pain as it completed its turn and came face to face with Rayne. The creature had a longer face than Rayne had originally pictured filled full of razor-sharp teeth. It had a thick fin on top of its head that was only about a hand-width tall, and it continued down to the middle of its neck. The creature’s hands ended in claws the length of Rayne’s fingers, and scaly skin covered them.