Chapter Seven
Excuse Me While I Powder My Nose
The next day, Jisei and I met up with Frieden at the stables. He had gotten there an hour earlier so he could feed his Pferd-crawler; Ort ate a mixture of meat and grains. The owner of the stables allowed the barbarian to corral Ort by himself in a secluded area of town. Frieden didn't have to worry about anyone stealing Ort; he only had to worry about Ort eating someone or something. Frieden had told me when he traveled with Stier and the others of his old party they had camped out and dark elves attacked them, seeking Stier's head for murdering a prince of their race. Frieden and a spearman had cornered two of the dark elves near their riding steeds. Ort seized the opportunity to chomp off the head of a dark elf and when the spearman rushed in to kill the other dark elf, Ort chomped off the spearman's head also. Stier wanted to kill Ort for the beast was too dangerous, but Frieden wouldn't hear of it. Stier let the matter drop, but only because he didn't care much for the spearman and owed him some gold.
Once Frieden fed Ort, the three of us rode out. The morning was sunny and the air clear and crisp. Excitement filled my heart for the venture I would share with the two would-be members of my party.
“Tell me what we'll be doing,” Frieden spoke to the priestess.
Jisei replied, “Sister Kurin tells me that a horde of monsters have taken over the Hills of Hikui-point. We are to remove these vile creatures and liberate the land so that farmers can move back in.”
“I see. Do we know how many and what type of creatures?” Frieden asked.
“No, so our first assignment is to scout the area and determine what type of foe we shall be facing,” Jisei answered. “It shall take us two days by horse to arrive at the Hills of Hikui-point, so we shall stop before twilight and rest for the night. I know of a spot near a small waterfall.”
We continued on, only stopping a few times long enough to rest the riding animals and water them and then later that day, we arrived at the spot Jisei had spoken of. It did have a small waterfall that fed a creek, and we tied the riding animals near it and unsaddled them. I started a fire while Frieden gathered more wood and Jisei picked mountain berries. I removed gray deer jerky and gave a few pieces to Frieden and Jisei and once we ate of the dry salty meat and the sweet ripe berries, I stretched out my bedroll and lay on it. I talked with the others, getting to know them better. I asked about their parents and both of them avoided the conversation, so we turned to their schooling.
We must have talked a least an hour before Jisei stood and said, “If you shall excuse me, I shall only be a few minutes.”
She went into the woods, and we could hear her walking through the pines. I added wood to the fire and stoked it, bringing it back to life, then I started to ask Frieden if he had any brothers or sisters when we heard Jisei's startled cry. We went rushing into the woods with our weapons. I arrived first and it was apparent Jisei had been in the middle of doing her business when something must have attacked her.
She had fallen back against a tree and was trying to straighten herself so she could pull up her undergarment, while at the same time, she squealed, pointed at something near a bush, and yelled, “It is there! The vile creature is there!”
I went and investigated, and I found a spider the size of my hand crawling away in its own frantic terror. It continued on, so I let the spider be, pretended to pick it up, and incinerated it in a tiny ball of flame.
“There! The foul beast is dead,” I told her as Frieden arrived, heaving from running. He was quick for a barbarian, but I had called upon my Valkyrie Wings to carry me toward Jisei, fearing she was in danger. The white wings were still on my back, and would last another twenty minutes, unless I unspelled them.
Jisei turned to Frieden, looked down at herself, then her face paled even more, knowing a man had seen her undergarment, and she let out another shriek as she yelled, “Turn away! Don't look at me! Turn away!”
Frieden had no idea what was going on, but when he saw Jisei with her undergarment around her ankles he blushed a bit and turned away. I tried to hide my laughter over her carrying on so over something as small as a spider, but I knew when it came to my own fears size didn't matter. I masterfully covered up what was ready to burst forth, and I told the barbarian with his back to us, “Frieden, return to our campsite; all is well here. I'll wait for Jisei to finish and then the two of us will return.”
He started to turn to us to reply, but Jisei shrieked at him again, so he headed straight into the woods toward our campsite as if a hundred ghost-specters chased him and the only way to save himself was to exit the woods before they touched him. Jisei finished what she was doing as I turned and faced away from her and once she was done, I heard her washing her hands in the creek. I still turned away from her, giving Jisei her privacy, then she came up behind me, and I thought I heard her sobbing.
I turned and discovered the priestess who usually had great self control was weeping, and my heart felt for her, even though I didn't understand why she was crying. I moved to her, gently placed my hands on her shoulders, and asked, “What's wrong? Did the foul spider hurt you?”
“I am not crying over what the spider did to me. I am crying because I have shamed myself in allowing the barbarian to see me. If word gets back...” Jisei started to cry again.
Forgetting on how she insisted that she not be touched, I wrapped my arms around her and told her, “There's nothing to be ashamed of. I doubt he saw anything. I don't think even the spider had time to view you, so there is nothing to fear.”
“You believe he saw nothing? Are you saying that I have not shamed myself?” Jisei questioned.
“It is what I'm saying,” I told her. “Frieden was more worried about the foul spider crawling away than what you were doing.” I heard her still crying in my arms, and wondered if it was still over the spider, so I added, “The foul beast was huge. It nearly took off my arm before I was able to vanquish it.”
“It was big for its species, but nothing that I should have screamed about; it merely startled me when it landed on my shoulder.” Jisei took a step back from me, and I released her as she wiped her eyes and she said, “There was no need of you to kill it.”
I smiled as I informed her, “If it makes you feel any better, I didn't kill the creature; I merely pretended to so that you wouldn't fear it anymore.”
“Thank you for considering my feelings and at the same time, considering its life. We are all of the same maker. I still cannot get over my shame. You have at least seen me in my disgrace.”
“Don't be ashamed,” I told her. “We're friends, no...” I stepped to her and took both of her hands and said, “We're sisters. Nothing that happens between us should make the other feel sad or embarrassed and don't worry, when I tell this tale I'll make sure to make the spider at least the size of my hand.” I saw that tears were still streaming down her face, and I wanted to vanquish all of her sorrow and disgrace, so I told her, “As I said before, there's nothing to be ashamed of, not even the part of you screaming. You should never be fearful of your own apprehensions; they're a part of you. They're what make you you; just don't let them rule your life.” I tried to make light of the whole thing and added, “Now if you had been a male member of my party who screamed like a woman, I would have made sure he felt his shame a hundred times over.” Jisei slightly chuckled, so I squeezed her hands before letting them go and then told her, “Come, we should return before Frieden grows concerned.” I started for our campsite in a different part of the woods than I had come through and a few moments later, I let out a loud high-pitch screech.
Jisei quickly came up behind me with her staff at the ready and Frieden wasn't far behind as she inquired, “What is it? Has the spider returned?”
The thing I saw was so horrendous that I couldn't utter what it was, so I pointed at a boulder it had crawled behind.
“What is going on?” Frieden demanded. “First the prie
stess screams and now you. What is it that I am not seeing? Or are you playing a joke on me? Did Stier and the others put you up to this?”
I was still having problems speaking as a deep seeded fear from my childhood reared up inside me like a malice-hooded cobra poised ready to strike, but I managed to stammer, “Bug... There's a bug over there.”
He looked to Jisei and questioned her, “Bug? Is that what you were screaming about before?”
Jisei decided not to be bashful about her previous scare and came right out with, “Yes, I screamed because a spider landed on me. It might have been only the size of my pinky, but it still frightened me. There, I said it. Ayann told me not to be fearful of my own apprehensions; they are part of me, and I am not ashamed to admit that I am afraid of spiders.”
“Is it a spider that the valkyrie's going on about?” Frieden inquired. “If it is a spider, let it be; it'll go about its business if we leave it alone.”
I shook my head as I tried to explain to them, “It's not a spider. It's... It's...” My voice failed me, and I whispered, “It's a Kittle Cockroach.”
“You say you came across a Stocktoach?” Frieden turned and faced the boulder with his ax held high to his side as he questioned, “Was there only one? Usually Stocktoaches run in packs, and the reptile-like chickens like to sneak up on their prey.” He glanced behind himself to where the priestess stood and then added, “We should all be wary.” His stomach growled, complaining about what little jerky it had gotten, so he added, “They are also good to eat; they taste like alligator. Maybe we could kill a few.”
Jisei walked up to the barbarian and stated, “I do not believe she said Stocktoach.”
“Then what did she say?” he asked. “The way that the valkyrie's staring at the boulder, I believe we're all in grave danger.”
I knew I had to tell them what I saw, so I mustered up the courage and said, “I saw a cockroach. It ran behind there.”
Frieden lowered his ax, realizing his stomach would grumble all night and uttered, “Cockroach? We're standing here in the middle of the woods over a little cockroach? Leave the thing alone, and let us return to our campfire. It'll do us no harm.” He shook his head and muttered, “You women and your bug hysteria. Now I see why Stier never allowed the fairer sex to join our party. I should really think over joining a party that already has one.”
I ignored his later comments, focused on his first ones, and told him, “I can't return to our campfire until I have vanquished the foul creature. I have sworn to destroy all of them and besides, I won't be able to sleep until I know it's dead.”
“Go squash it with your foot then and be done with it, if you must. The sun's starting to set, and I would prefer to have a fire against my back when darkness comes,” Frieden told me.
I took a step toward the boulder as I drew my sword, then the fear I had from my childhood swept over me again, and I froze in dread.
Jisei inquired, “Why have you stopped? You had no fear of the spider, so go find the little beast and step on it.”
I turned to her and questioned, “What happened to we are all of the same maker?”
“Cockroaches are vile creatures, and they are not included in the things we should not squash,” Jisei told me as she lifted her fist and instructed me, “Flatten the little thing!”
I took another step toward the boulder and my sword arm shook as the shield I was holding felt as if it wouldn't protect me from the beast of my nightmares. It seemed an eternity before I was able to take another step.
“For the love of Reaper's Mountain!” Frieden exclaimed. “I'll squash the little cockroach if you're too afraid to face it.” He leaned his ax against a tree and started around the boulder.
“No! Don't go! At least don't go without your ax,” I warned him.
He yelled back at me, “I have my boot. What more do I need? If any from my clan saw me holding an ax against a small bug, I would not hear the end of it.” Frieden disappeared around the boulder.
“You don't understand!” I shouted after him. “It's... It's...”
Frieden yelled back to us, “I don't see it yet; wait, I see a small shadow moving back here. I believe I have found it. I'm going to shoo it out with a stick I have found.”
We heard him grunt as he bent over and then there was sounds of him chasing something and then we heard him shriek. It was a shrill holler and unlike any I had heard from a man before; I feared that the cockroach had slain him. I lost my terror as I thought of our barbarian in danger, and I ran for the boulder with Jisei close behind. The barbarian came running around the large rock and ran into me, nearly knocking both of us to the ground.
He glanced back at the boulder in fear and angrily shouted at me, “I thought you said it was little.”
“I never said it was little,” I told him, coming to my own defense. “I said it was a Kittle Cockroach.”
Jisei questioned, “Why are they called Kittle Cockroaches?”
“Because they are touchy and unpredictable,” I informed her, paused, and then asked Frieden, hoping his earlier shrill was one of triumph and not one of failure and fright, “Did you kill it?”
“Did I kill it?” he shouted at me. “Did you see the size of that thing? It isn't little; it's the size of a...”
The thundering of what sounded like a herd of wild wood oxen heading our way interrupted the barbarian's frenzied description. The Kittle Cockroach came around the boulder, and Jisei let out a squeal as she lifted her hand and pointed, intimidated by its size, and then she squealed again. I wanted to add my own shrill to her high pitch call but managed to hold back my scream. Frieden ran around me, grabbed his ax, then turned, and faced the monstrous cockroach; it was the size of an ogre. The Kittle Cockroach reared up like a frenzied horse and slapped its top legs at us. I again wanted to let out a squeal, but knew I had to protect my friends, so I leveled my sword, called upon Fotia Fire to blaze across my blade, and I charged toward the dreaded harbinger of my adolescence. My fiery blade pierced it in its mid-region and globs of green blood splattered across my face. I removed my blade and then spun around, slicing the cockroach in half. Intestines and more blood splattered on me and then its cleaved bodies fell to the ground. The Kittle Cockroach's legs wiggled about, so Frieden approached one half of the thing and buried his ax's head several times into its body as Jisei used her staff to levitate the boulder above the other half and smashed the large rock several times upon the already dead bug. I leapt out of the way before I too was squashed in her frantic revenge upon the insect world. I watched the two would-be members of our party from my hasty position on the ground and then I started to laugh. They stopped their assault on the battered and now flattened cockroach and turned to me. They were also covered in its blood and other random parts; they glanced at one another and then they too started to laugh.
Ayann #1 A Fantasy Action Adventure- Part A- Broken Sword In Dragon Dungeon Page 7
