by Kevin Culp
“How much?” I asked him.
“Four hundred and fifty gold including the horses.”
I handed him the money, and he ran off immediately looking back at the lion several times as he left with fear in his eyes.
“I wonder where the guy is I need to pay for the lion?” I questioned.
The Prince stepped up. “I took the liberty of paying for that. Following orders or not, I was the one responsible for this creature ending up in a cage.”
“Well, you definitely didn’t have to do that. It was a lot of money.”
“I’m a prince remember.” He laughed.
“Well then, since you bought him. I’ll let you name him.” I said as I walked over to the door of the cage and opened it.
Leovald and Christina took a startled step back, and the coachman looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
The prince gasped, “Uhh… This isn’t funny Archaeus what are you doing?”
The lion walked out of the cage and walked up to him and started sniffing.
“I promise you he’s harmless unless you threaten him. Why don’t you scratch him behind the ear?”
As I said it, the enormous lion leaned his head way down and turned his head so that the prince could reach his ear.
With one eye closed he reached out and touched the lion. He started scratching cautiously at first but then got into it. The lion seemed to really like it and was purring loudly. Christina walked up on her own and started petting him on the side. She was exceptionally brave for a commoner, though she had some experience with Zeus. He was probably less than half the size of the Lion though.
“This is incredible, Archaeus. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before.” The prince said then he looked into the lion’s eyes. “Do you understand me?”
The lion nodded.
“So how about it? What’s his name?” I asked.
“Would it be pretentious of me to call him Leo?”
I chuckled at that. Leo the lion was in so many themes in my world and big in astrology, but that also meant it fit. “I think Leo kind of works for him, but why don’t you ask him? It is his name after all.”
“Would it be okay if I called you Leo?”
The lion cocked his head to the side as if to think. He then squared his shoulders and roared. I think it scared pretty much everyone present, save for me. He then looked down at the prince and nodded. I’m not sure what a roar had to do with thinking about a name, but I guess it was important. Maybe he was saying Leo in lion speak, but that was probably a silly thought.
“Leo, it is then.” The prince said.
I looked at Leovald, “I know you said that you don’t get much time to practice as a cleric, and I would assume that’s both as a knight and as a healer. However, Leo here would probably make an amazing mount one day and could use someone who he could serve beside with honor. It would be an amazing thing if that were you.”
“I’m touched that you would hold me in such high regard, but unfortunately, that may never be me.”
“Well, I’m not keeping him as a pet or anything. A creature like this deserves a partnership, not to be someone’s pet. I intend on sending him on his way near Freid. I’m sure that if you decide you are interested and seek him out, you could find him.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
I looked up at Leo. “Just follow us for a while. I’m probably going to ask that you live in the forest. You would probably prefer some plains I’m sure, but I’d also think you don’t want to draw too much attention.”
He nodded.
I offered my hand to the prince, and he took it. “Our journey has been short, but I’m sure our paths will cross again. You are a good man Leovald. You may be second-born, but you have the heart of a leader.”
He smiled at me. “I don’t know about that Sir Velnir, but I hope you stay safe during your travels and arrive back in Freid with no troubles. Though, I’m sure that if someone tries to stop you, they are the ones in trouble.”
I turned to leave, but with my back to the prince I said, “Call me Archaeus by the way.”
“Okay, Archaeus. See you again.”
With that, we got into the carriage and began our journey. We pretty much avoided any city, but Leo hunted for us. I didn’t want people in the city to go into a panic when they saw an enormous lion. As is, we left the capital with tons of frightened pedestrians as Leo followed us out of town. We certainly scared a lot of people we met on the road.
The trip home was pretty uneventful. There was actually a lot of rain. It had probably only rained a few times since I’d been in this world, but it was raining for the first probably five days of the trip. Leo definitely didn’t like the rain and spending most of the trip wet.
It went by a little faster because, while we had to skirt more towns there was no one on foot except for Leo and the horses. Finally, we reached the trail into the woods leading to Freid. It was the same one I had first shown up on just a little further out. It would probably be another day and a half before we got home.
I called for the coachman to a stop and got out of the Carriage. Christina followed.
I looked up at Leo. “I think this is a good place to part ways buddy. Forgive me for saying this as I’m sure you already know, just don’t eat people and try not to eat livestock either. If someone hunts you, then that’s at their own risk do what you need to do.”
He leaned his face down to me, and I reached up and pet him. Christina did as well. He purred loudly. With that, he turned into the woods and ran off. I was certain we would see him again. Christina sighed, and the coachman seemed to release a breath that he had been holding in since the capital. We decided to set up camp there for the night and would continue on in the morning.
Chapter 17
We woke up the next morning and ate some jerky that Christina had made during the journey from the meat Leo had hunted. We would probably run out before we got back to town because he rarely left us that much meat from his hunt. Regardless, we had trail rations to make it back and there was some more meat in that.
As we traveled, I started to notice some things seemed to be a little bit different in these woods than during our exit trip. There had been a lot of life, like birds, squirrels, rabbits, and other small critters running all over the place. Now there was none of that. It was completely silent save for the horses and the carriage. Leo had been released into this ecosystem last night, and while he was definitely what I would think of as an apex predator, he wouldn’t do this much damage to the ecosystem in a single night, could he?
All I could think about was whether I had made a mistake bringing him here. It would be a depressing thought if I had to hunt him down and pull him out of the home I had brought him to. He seemed friendly the entire way here, and he really didn’t hunt more than what he needed. So why had so much changed?
Just as I was having that thought, the coachman opened the little sliding door between us and spoke up, “Man Sir Velnir. There sure has been a lot of travel through here lately.”
That felt strange why would there be so much travel here? “Can I ask what makes you say that?”
“Umm… Yes, there are tracks everywhere. I mean I’m no tracker, but to me, it looks similar to when an army marches, and they definitely didn’t all stick to the road.”
That was disturbing what was going on? Why would an army march toward Freid? Was it Baron Lyndmire?
I looked through the front at the coachman. “If we hustle the horses, can we make it back tonight?”
“Um maybe, but we just might run the horses to death.” He said.
“Just do it. I’ll take care of the horses.”
As I said it, the coachman rushed the horses. Christina got really nervous and started biting her nails. I’m sure she was scared, who knows what was happening to her family and friends, and help was not that close.
We had already been traveling for about four hours and had been about ready to stop for
lunch when we noticed this. Christina and I ate in the coach and I passed some food through to the coachman. After about four hours of hustling the horses we stopped, and I used healing hands on the horses and gave them some feed and water. According to Christina, we were probably only about another thirty minutes away from Freid on foot at this point.
I took off my armor, ring, amulet, cloak, and belt and looked at Christina. “Put these on.”
“Huh, but this is your armor what if you need it?”
“You’ve seen that I can take care of myself with or without it. The worst thing that could happen to me is something happening to you. The armor is magic so it should resize to you when you put it on.”
She seemed scared but started to put on the equipment as I had requested.
“Stay in the carriage. I’m going to walk on foot from here. I don’t want you to be too far away from me in case something happens so just follow slowly.”
Christina gave me a kiss and got in the carriage. I could see tears starting to come to her eyes. She was definitely terrified. The coachman gulped and nodded to me.
I started walking toward Freid. I had given Christina all my equipment that would make her harder to hit if we did encounter something. I’ve always seen the rolls in my notepad, so I know something like armor class still exists here. With a +3 lightsteel Breastplate, +3 Ring of protection, +2 Amulet of Natural Armor, and a +2 Belt of Physical attributes that should make her armor rating around 25 assuming she only had about a 10 or 11 dexterity to start with. Also, the minor fortification should mean that even if she is hit, it will make it harder for it to be a critical wound. She should be pretty safe.
After walking for about twenty minutes, streams of smoke started to come into view. It was definitely a bad sign if the town was already burning. I had considered calling Zeus to my side, but I didn’t want to pull away the town’s strongest protector if it was under attack. Hopefully, Rin and Zeus were both still fighting.
We had gotten close. I knew the town would come into view after the next bend in the road, but it bothered me that I still didn’t really hear any kind of commotion coming from it. A branch broke to my left.
“RRAAAAAAWWW,” an orc with a battle-ax came rushing out of the woods at me.
I simply lunged forward at him with my sword and drove it through his chest. The orc was dead in an instant, but then, all hell broke loose. The scream had alerted the rest of them to our presence. I could hear tons of orc battle cries coming from the town and the woods, as well as, heavy footsteps heading towards us.
The next orc that showed up had come onto the path and was running straight towards me. I sidestepped his blow and slid my blade straight across his gut from the side. Something hit my right shoulder, and I turned to see a spear stabbing it. I grabbed the spear and pulled the orc to me with it driving my blade through his throat.
More blades hit me from all directions, but they couldn’t leave more than a scratch on my skin. Worst-case scenario, I would have to use healing hands every couple hundred hits. Just then I heard a horse scream. When I turned around, there was a spear going straight through the horse on the right. The other was trying to break free, and the coachman jumped off and took off running. I couldn’t blame him.
I fought my way to the carriage door and opened it. “Christina, I know it’s scary, but you have to come with me and stay by my side.” I was really hoping the armor could protect her. They weren’t hitting me a lot right now, but my armor class was only about thirteen with no equipment on.
Christina hesitated.
“You have to trust me, Christina.”
She nodded and took my hand.
With Christina by my side, I couldn’t hesitate. I had to focus on using full attack actions and taking these monsters down before they could hurt her. Luckily, they were really only coming upon us three and four at a time. We moved to the back of the carriage where I could hopefully better protect her, and I put her against it and stood in front of her. A few with spears tried to stab at her, but the blows were stopped by either the armor or some kind of protective force field. One even seemed to hit her arm but did no damage. That would be the amulet of natural armor, but it still scared her.
As I fought bodies piled up around us, and while the stench of it was brutal, I was actually grateful because it created a battlefield with little ground to stand on and slowed the enemy approach. It felt like I had been defending that spot for hours and my muscles started to ache, but knowing the combat speed of Archaeus, it had probably only been minutes.
I tried to angle my blade as I swung at the enemy where it would end in batting them to either side. Doing this made it even more difficult to approach Christina building an impromptu wall of bodies. There were probably at least fifty or sixty bodies surrounding us at this point.
“Archaeus, this is never going to end. How are we going to get to the town and make sure everyone is alright?”
I looked back at Christina to see that she was covered in blood. Luckily, I don’t think any of it was hers.
“We don’t know how many of them there are, or even if Rin and Zeus are still fighting. I need to press my way towards the town, but I’m not sure if I can protect you while doing that.”
Christina had a look in her eyes like she had found some kind of resolve. “I trust you Archaeus. We need to make sure everyone else is safe.”
“Stay right on my back and yell if you see any orcs.”
She nodded.
The orc’s assault on us had slowed pretty drastically at that point. We charged out from the pile of bodies, and I did my best to open up all my senses. Archaeus had a pretty good perception, so orcs shouldn’t be able to sneak past him.
I’m guessing that we had already killed all of the orcs patrolling the woods because, at this point, all the orcs charging at us were coming down the road. I held the sword in two hands and was using mighty blow with every strike. I couldn’t afford to leave any of them alive behind us. Every swing of my sword tore off a body part.
“You said that orcs would normally avoid towns just because they aren’t worth the hassle unless there was someone strong there for them to fight. Is it my fault these orcs are here?”
Christina seemed nervous to respond. “I don’t know Archaeus. If they were getting their news from humans, then they should have known you weren’t here.”
“What if they are the ones who collected those orc bodies I killed? I didn’t hear anything about them from the baron, and they definitely aren’t there anymore. This really is my fault.”
“Orcs are monstrous creatures, Archaeus. Don’t blame yourself for this, please. Even if not you, who knows what other reason they may have found to attack the town.”
By the time we reached the town, the orc attacks had practically come to a stop. There were small fires all over the place, but they looked more like campfires. A few of the buildings were on fire, but overall, the damage was minimal.
It was then that I saw it. In the middle of the road sat a large mass of fur covered in blood and breathing raggedly. It was Zeus. He was still alive but gravely wounded. I ran up to him.
“Oh, buddy, what happened to you?”
Christina gasped and kneeled down by his head.
I used my healing hands on him. His wounds closed, but I could feel something more at work in him. I wasn’t sure what all damage had been done, but he definitely was still wounded on multiple levels.
He opened his eyes and whimpered. I had no idea what was afflicting him. Even though I hadn’t brought him to full health, he should be able to move okay now. Instead, he just dropped his head back to the ground. The only explanation was that it was some kind of poison or disease. Zeus wasn’t immune like me but his resistance was impressive. Regardless, I didn’t think it was acting in his body anymore.
Suddenly, it struck me that he was the only body in the street. If they had been killed, I would think that many of them would be dead in the streets. Just as I thought
it many of the doors on the street opened and several orcs stepped out.
A voice boomed. “Well, well, well, the mutt’s master finally makes an appearance, and here we were about to kill everyone.”
Chapter 18
I looked down the road and saw that the orc that was speaking had stepped out of the tavern. He was huge even for an orc. Probably seven and a half feet tall. His hair was long and black and his face was cruel with black war paint running down his face over both eyes. He wore full plate armor covered in spikes and had a long sword that was radiating black energy.
Zeus forced himself to his feet and started to snarl.
“Aw the mutt hasn’t had enough punishment to learn its place,” said the man.
“Who are you and what do you want?” I said to him.
“My name is Vrogath. What I want is to see this world burn. As of right now though, I will settle for your death. Judging by the smell of death lingering on you and the blood on your blade, I assume you are the one they say killed my men in the woods a few weeks back.”
“I’m sorry about your men, but they were bandits, and you are attacking innocents.”
He let out a howling laugh. “hah, hah, hah, I don’t care about those men. What I do care about is proving my indisputable might. We orcs live for battle against the strong. The more people I kill with strength like yours, the more my own men will fear and immortalize me.”
This guy was a psycho. “Fine then, if it’s me you want, let’s fight just me and you. Order your men to stand down if I win.”
“Oh, I intend for me and you to fight, and you will not leave the fight alive. Even if I did order my men to stand down, and you somehow defeated me though, defeating me would just mean to them there would be more honor in killing you.”
I looked at Zeus. “I know you are hurt buddy, but you need to protect Christina.”
He nodded.
I started to step towards the orc, and as I did, another figure emerged from the tavern. It was a bestial creature with oily purple skin, bat-like wings, and razor-sharp claws and teeth. There was a man in his grasp with thinning salt and pepper hair and a huge nose. He was covered in blood. It was Christina’s father.
