Log inOf Fates And Fetters Ch 7
Gooooood afternoon! Hope y'all are having a good weekend.
Work was very light yesterday as well as most people being smart enough to use their floating holiday to take the second off, so I was able to actually write a significant chunk of this chapter yesterday while not having to act like I was busy.
Boy I wish I was smart sometimes.
But enough about my hypothetical intelligence.
Here is chapter seven! Please please please drop me a comment and let me know if you like it!
Or don't, I remain not the boss of you.
Hope you enjoy.
=][=
Shana made a sound somewhere between a shout and a squeak.
“Bless you.” I said absently, and dropped another blanket on top of her.
“Daaaart, it’s too hot!” She whined, then sniffled.
“That’s what you get for being reckless.” I said absently, and tended the small fire I’d made, and stirred the ratter stew, dropping a few more spices into the broth.
Yeah, the meat would still be gamey, but I could take it from ‘ugh’ to ‘eh, not bad’ with what I had on hand, and that was priceless.
“I’m surprised you lit a fire.” Lavitz said, sharpening his spear on the whetstone he borrowed from me.
“It’s cause there’s a river between them and us.” I said. “Otherwise we’d still be stuck eating dried out food. Which uhh, I’m running low on, I wasn’t counting on a third mouth to feed, so this is good.”
“My thanks, and apologies.” Lavitz said, tilting his head.
“None of that now.” I said, making a ‘shoo!’ motion with my left hand. “Least I could do brah.”
He scowled and worked through my statement, then his brow relaxed and he nodded. “You are a surprisingly deep well of unusual words and turns of phrase.”
Shit.
“You pick up some stuff traveling.” I said, and continued to stir.
“Can I have my clothes back?” Shana asked from within the nest of blankets.
I poked said clothes, hanging by the line of twine I’d tied around a pair of trees, as close as I could safely place them to the fire. “Nope, still wet.”
Shana tried to make grumbling noises, but instead sounded like a whiny kid who wasn’t given a cookie.
We sat in silence for a while, my stewardship over dinner continuing, listening to the night animals singing and screeching and skittering.
“It’s frightening how bold Sandora has become, ever since they found a way to control that dragon.” Lavitz murmured.
“I would too if I had a fuckin’ dragon.” I said, drawing a spoonful of stew and sipping, yep, needed more time. “Not sure why they call it a dragon though, it’s a giant fuckin’ bug more than a dragon.”
Lavitz jumped to his feet so quickly my hand twitched toward my bayonet. “You’ve seen it!?”
I drew another spoonful, then explained. “Kinda hard not to, fucker’s big and wanted to eat me.”
“Where was it!? How many troops were around it!? How was it being controlled!?” Lavitz demanded, vibrating with excitement.
“Uhh…In order, near Seles, none, and no idea. I ran into it after I snuck past what I thought was a Sandoran patrol, surprisingly sneaky for something that’s at least five stories tall. It decided I looked tasty, and then I ran away long enough to piss it off.” I threw another pinch of salt into the stew and stirred. “It cornered me, I managed not to get eaten for a few seconds, and I was saved by a warrior who was passing by. It threw a temper tantrum, and then I ran to Seles. Didn’t even get her name.”
Lavitz began pacing. “How powerful would you say the creature is?”
“To truly hurt it, you’d have to hit it with a ballista, trebuchet, or something of that size.” I said, placing the lid on the pot. “But you’d never hit it, it was fast. And could casually fell ancient trees. I doubt they can control the thing too well, otherwise they’d just use it as a siege engine. I don’t think I’ve seen any walls that could stand up to it. Also, I think it may be able to spit out acid or something.”
Lavitz scowled. “There are reports it uses poison.”
“Oh, so it’s venomous on top of being a gigantic fuckoff bug. Great.”
“I’mma tell Auntie you cursed.” Shana grumbled.
“What’s that? You’d rather go without all my blankets while your clothes dry?” I asked.
“I’ll be good.” Shana muttered.
I nodded, magnanimous in my victory.
“There have been very few who survived encountering the dragon, we weren’t able to get anything coherent out of them.” Lavitz muttered.
“I mean…giant fuckoff dragon.” I said with a shrug. “Makes sense they’d be frightened out of their wits I guess.”
“You seem fine.” Shana said.
I grinned and pointed at my temple. “Fear cannot touch me! My brain’s too smooth!”
“What does the smoothness of your…erm…brain have to do with your ability to feel fear, or be affected by propaganda for that matter?”
“Folding maximizes the surface-to-volume ratio of something, a more wrinkly brain leads to having more brain in the same volume, less wrinkly brain means less total surface-area of brain for a given volume. Ergo, smoother brain is less amount of brain, ergo, smoother brain means dumber person. The joke is I’m calling myself too dumb to be afraid or be affected by propaganda, as one requires a base-level intellect to comprehend mortal peril while the other necessitates the ability to extrapolate the information ‘I should be afraid of entering Hellena.’” I answered by rote, then sniffed and spat to the side. “Or something along those lines.”
Shana sighed and pointed at me. “See what I had to deal with growing up?”
Rude.
“I…while we know the head is the seat of the soul.” Lavitz said slowly. “We only have theories about the workings of the…erm…the brain is the organ inside the skull, yes?”
“Yup.”
“Right. We only have theories about the workings of the brain. But this seems a more sound argument than a mere theory.”
Shit! Time to deploy Fortuitous Alterations Legislatively Spoken Eloquently Harmoniously and Optimistically Optimized Deceitfully and Sinuously.
“I read that on some scholarly type’s journal while traveling in a caravan.”
Nailed it.
Before he could ask another question, I checked the stew, and it was good enough. “But more importantly dinner’s done!”
I pulled out my one bowl, scooped some stew into it, dropped my spoon into the broth and held it out to Shana. “Eat, something warm in your belly will help you not get sick. Probably.”
She snuck an arm out of the cocoon of blanket and took the proffered food. “Thank you.”
“Yup.” I said, and leaned back, waiting for her to finish so I could get some, then had a genius idea. “Oi, Lavitz, you mind sharing the ladle?”
“In what regard?” He asked, looking up from the spear he’d returned to sharpening.
I scooped a ladleful of stew, slurped it down, then offered him the tool.
“Huh, you know, my mother would speak very sternly to me if I were to ever do such a thing.” He said, taking the ladle and slurping down a mouthful.
“Hey if it’s stupid and it works!” I said with a smile and slurped another mouthful down.
“No fair.” Shana muttered.
“Huh?” I asked, turning to look at the pouty girl. “What’s up? Want some more?”
Her cheeks were decidedly red as she said. “Let me use the ladle too!”
“But…but I gave you my bowl and spoon.” I said with a scowl, passing it on to Lavitz, who drank a mouthful. He passed it back to me. I shrugged, dipped it, then held it out to Shana.
“No! You drink it first, then pass it to me!” She said in a huff.
I scoffed. “One ladleful is as good as the next!”
“No! You drink that one and let me have the next one!”
“Do you want it or not!?”
“Yes! But you drink it first!”
“By Soa you’re such a child!” I grumbled, gulped it down, then did what she wanted.
“Don’t call me a child.” The child muttered while pouting and slurped down the ladleful while blushing furiously.
I grabbed the ladle back when she passed it, dipped it in the stew, drank it down, dipped it again and held it out to Lavitz.
“So…this is what it feels like from this side.” He murmured.
“What feels like huh?” I asked eloquently.
“Nothing important.” He said, drinking down a mouthful and passing the ladle back. “Just…I think I finally understand my mother’s hardships.”
“Well, that’s good.” I said, drinking a mouthful. “Hey Shana, should I refill your bowl?”
She muttered something about drinking straight from the ladle.
The child.
=][=
“We’re nearly at the entrance to the cavern.” Lavitz informed us as we walked.
“Well goodie.” I said, tossing him a piece of jerky and handing some to Shana. “I’ll sleep better once we’re on marginally friendlier ground.”
I took a bite of my jerky as he spoke. “It’ll be good to be home. Haven’t been to Basil in a few months…I hope my mother hasn’t worried herself sick, I doubt she took the news of my capture well.”
“I’d make a joke, but that would be very insensitive and Shana would tell on me.” I said.
He barked a laugh. “What was it you said earlier? You’re all heart.”
Shana muttered something childishly, still not having gotten over whatever caused the weird fit she threw last night.
The child.
I spotted a few figures sitting on the side of the road and dropped the antics. “Heads up, possible hostiles up ahead.”
Lavitz made a noise and squinted, then shook his head. “Dart, they don’t look armed.”
“Don’t matter what they look like, we’re in enemy territory, that makes them potential hostiles.” I pressed. “Just be ready for an ambush.”
“Dart, there’s a child with them.” Shana said.
“In the business, we call that bait.” I countered. “Just be ready, pay attention, and try to look like you’re not worth the risk.”
Lavitz sighed and shook his head. “Just let me do the talking.”
“Alright, I’ll glower and keep an eye out.”
“Dart…has anyone ever used a child to draw you into an ambush before?” Shana asked slowly.
“One of the oldest tricks in the book, Shana. Unless you know the person, it’s best not to trust until you can verify.”
“That, that is a very sad way to look at things.” She murmured.
“That’s life.”
As I’d spoken, we’d closed the distance with the group. Now I could see they consisted of an older man, an older woman, a young woman that couldn’t be much older than Shana, and a boy that looked to be somewhere around eight or nine.
“Good day there!” Lavitz called out to the group ahead.
The women and child turned to us with a tired fear in their eyes. I’d call that a good thing, if fear couldn’t quickly morph into anger. The man, judging by his expression, had soared right past fear a long time ago.
“That accent.” He said, narrowing his eyes. “You’re from Basil!”
Okay, we can work with this, with the right lie we can probably-
“I am.”
Goddamn it, Lavitz!
The woman took the man’s arm and showed which of them had the brains in the marriage. “Honey, let’s just…”
“No! It’s thanks to the Basil Knights that we lost our home!” The man shouted, then turned to us and snarled. “Yes, we’re Sandorans, your enemies!”
No shit.
I wasn’t too worried, the man was muscular, but he had the build of a laborer, he was probably okay in a scrap, but he wasn’t trained for combat. The only one of us he’d beat in a fight would be Shana, and if he laid a hand on her, I’d skin him alive and make his son wear his skin while he watched.
…
Or better yet just kill him, no need to go overboard.
Shana might get angry at me.
It looked like I’d missed some of the conversation while I was thinking, as Lavitz said. “King Albert always lends aid to those who have suffered due to the war, this includes those from Imperial Sandora. We are all ultimately Serdians.”
He turned to the kid and sat on his haunches. “Hey son, are you hungry?”
The kid looked at his mother before answering. “I, I am, sir.”
He offered the piece of jerky I’d given him…which, okay, but I wasn’t going to give him more. I was rationing our food for a good reason. If we were lucky, we’d arrive at Basil right as our supplies ran out.
He stood back up, nodding to the girl, the woman, and the man. “I am ashamed that I cannot do more to help right now. And my heart goes out to you; this war has taken many homes from many Serdians. If you move back to the main road, follow it north, it will eventually take you to Basil, if you run into any Basil patrols, tell them Sir Lavitz sent you, they will offer you aid. Worry not about finding a place to live, you may live with my mother and I, our home is big, and we could use the labor. If you do decide to work for me, I will provide you with room, board, and a salary.”
“But…But we are your enemies.” The man repeated in a low voice while his wife silently urged him to accept. “Why would you do so much for us?”
Lavitz shook his head, stepped forward, and squeezed the man’s shoulder. “You are Serdians, we are one people. It is not in my means to aid everyone, but I can offer aid to you. It shames me that I cannot escort you the rest of the way, but I am on a very time sensitive mission, and if I were to take you through the road we will take, I would not be able to guarantee your safety. Will you please accept my offer?”
“I…Yes, thank you, Sir Lavitz.” The man said.
“Good, chances are we will arrive at Bale before you do. I will make certain to inform my people to expect you.” Lavitz said, then saluted them. “My apologies, but I must go on. Please, stay safe, and I will see you the next time I am in Bale.”
“Y-Yes, my lord.” The man said with an awkward bow, his family following suit a moment later.
“Please, rise.” Lavitz said. “I am merely a knight. Now, we must be off.”
I could feel Shana’s stare boring into the side of my head.
No, I am not going to give them supplies, stop looking at me like that, we barely have enough an-fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
I stuck my hand into my handy sack, grabbed one of my bags of jerky and flat bread, and pushed it into the hands of the older woman.
“There, for the road, bye.” I said and marched off.
Lavitz and Shana were quick enough to catch up to me as I marched toward our destination. I glanced at them, then huffed. “Wipe that smug smirk off your face.”
“What smirk?” Shana asked while smirking smugly.
I grumbled but didn’t push it any farther.
Stupid, now I’d have to ration even harder. Fuckin’…
“You are a better man than you give yourself credit for, Dart.” Lavitz said.
“Don’t you start!” I snarled and picked up the pace, Shana’s giggles stabbing into me like knives.
Thankfully we reached the mouth of a cavern soon after, giving me a welcome reprieve from dealing with the two parasites following me around, by allowing me to concentrate on the far more comfortable possibility of mortal peril.
…
Sometimes I worried that my priorities might be a little skewed.
“Alright, any info on what we need to worry about?” I asked, loosening my sword and bayonet in their scabbards.
“By the reports I read? Plague bags and the occasional ooze.” Lavitz answered.
“What’s a plague bag?” Shana asked.
“Floating animal, think a very ugly looking floating sack, if a sack could have tumors.” I answered. “It has very thin skin, and sores all over its body, when those sores pop, it’s a crapshoot what liquid you’ll get splashed by. It’s generally pretty nasty and best avoided rather than dealt with as it’ll contaminate the soil where it dies, if we see one and it starts following us, stick it with a few arrows.”
“Oh, okay…and an ooze?”
“A large gelatinous creature.” Lavitz grunted. “Its touch burns the skin and, if left for too long, corrodes weapons and armor. They are thankfully not very threatening, but they do have a habit of clinging to a ceiling and falling on someone, leading to death via asphyxiation.”
Shana shuddered.
“Okay, gonna have to keep an eye on the cavern ceiling.” I said, looking up, then back down so I could walk without tripping on the uneven ground.
The cave was strangely relatively brightly lit, if I had to guess, light from outside reflected off enough rocks to provide enough natural illumination for us to mostly comfortably—
“What a pretty rock!” Shana said excitedly, holding a chunk of stone that glowed with a gentle radiance.
Or it could be magic rocks, thanks world.
With my handy sack now glowing a gentle gold every time it was opened, we made our way through the series of large caves. Though I didn’t get the feeling they were a natural formation.
I wasn’t a geologist, so what the fuck did I know, but the series of caverns we walked down were all enormous, evenly spaced, had strangely straightish and smooth walls, and had a pathway that was suspiciously easy to traverse.
I didn’t exactly have a ton of information, but I wouldn’t put it past this world to have some kind of forerunner race that made this cavern to sight-see hundreds of thousands of years ago. Or someth—
There was a quiet wet sucking sound and my body threw itself back, nearly bowling Shana over and making Lavitz stumble backwards as I crashed into him. A moment later, a wet splat sounded where I’d been standing an instant before.
“Behold, an ooze.” I said drily.
The creature in front of me looked like an oversized amoeba, I could see vague outlines of what on something much smaller I’d call organelles, but on this thing I’d probably be more correct to call organs.
It had spattered out, exactly like dropped gelatin, but was slowly reconstituting into a more spherical mass.
I pulled out a ten foot length of wood from the handy sack and proceeded to try to pummel it into paste from a safe distance.
“Target the small sphere in the center.” Lavitz added helpfully as I smacked the jelly.
I tried twice, then pulled the length of wood back and handed it to the spearman.
Lavitz took it, and with a single smooth thrust, impaled the nucleolus, making the giant jelly creature spasm and fall still.
He handed me the pole and I wiped it with a spare rag, the wood looked as if I’d spent quite a while polishing it.
“Yeah, that woulda sucked.” I murmured.
“You have good reflexes.” Lavitz said with a nod.
“Eh, beginner’s luck.” I countered and pushed forward before he could contradict me.
I heard the gurgling of water before I saw it, we went through a suspiciously door-sized hole in a stone wall, coming out into a cavern where an underground stream broke out into the…well, we were underground, so it was technically still an underground stream, but dammit, it was surface to me!
The stream had a fairly strong current, and it looked to terminate into a depression or fall. There was a pathway of stones that looked to be perfectly spaced to be too far to comfortably step onto them, but not so far that we’d have to leap hard to reach them.
Which just strengthened my hypothesis about this being the ancient race equivalent of a sightseeing tour left to go feral over a few millennia. Because if those steppingstones were natural I’d eat my hat.
Sure, I didn’t own a hat, but if I did and I was wrong, I’d eat it.
“So how long does he usually take before he stops staring at things with vaguely hostile calculation, in your experience?” Lavitz asked.
“Honestly it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.” Shana answered. “It really does largely depend on how complex a thing he’s studying.”
I was going to be merciful and not hold Shana up by her ankles and shake her, but no more!
Her time would come.
“Awright, Shana you’re the clumsy sort—”
“Hey!”
“—so I’ll go over what we need to do.” I pointed across the steppingstone pathway. “The stones look solid enough to step on and are evenly spaced. Yes they’re wet, but with a little luck that won’t be an issue. The trick is to gather enough momentum to do the jump to the first one, then ride that momentum to the end. Don’t stop jumping and you’ll be fine. I shall demonstrate.”
“Wait wha—?”
I took two steps and hopped to the first stone, kicked down as I landed and hopped to the next one, then the next, and the next, repeating the simple enough feat for the thirty elongated steps that it took to get to the other side.
The only place that was dangerous was the third to last stone, I had to make a fairly tight turn on that one to avoid falling, which considering that stone was distressingly close to the edge of what turned out to be a literal waterfall falling away into a very deep, dark, and suspiciously circular hole.
I have your number forerunner species, if any of you are in cryo-stasis, we will have words!
I slid as I reached the landing, then turned to Shana and Lavitz and shouted to be heard above the roar of the water. “See!? Like that!”
Shana shouted something back that I couldn’t quite hear, but then she psyched herself up, pinched her face into a mask of concentration, and started hopping. Thankfully she didn’t close her eyes as she started hopping with long, graceful steps.
I didn’t relax until she did the last jump and reached out, I caught her arm to steady her as she slid and nearly slipped at the landing.
I was still going to pick her up by her ankles later, but I felt my shoulders unclench once she was safe.
“Well done, Shana.” I said, and her face turned red from her neckline to her forehead. She murmured something that may have been thanks as she walked a few steps away.
I turned and saw Lavitz had already started, his steps were more ponderous than Shana’s or mine, but he did well enough.
At least he did until he had to do the turn, there his foot slipped and he fell, barely managing to grab hold of the rock as he hung over the literal abyss.
I only realized I was moving after I heard Shana shout Lavitz’s name as I hopped onto the stone he was at, grabbed his wrist, and started pulling. Which is when my foot slipped and I flopped belly down onto the rock that was far too small for it, my left hand holding onto a bump in the rock the only thing stopping me sliding off.
“Dart! Lavitz!” Shana shrieked, which was not helpful, but I appreciated the sentiment.
“Let go.” Lavitz said, staring grimly up at me.
“Fuck. You.” I growled, tightening my grip on his wrist. I took a deep breath and ran through every curse word I knew as I got my knees under me and stood up, my arms screaming as I pulled Lavitz up at the same time.
Once he was high enough to grip the edge of the stone, it became a little easier, and once I got my feet under me, I was able to pull him all the way up.
I nearly fell in the water because the stone we were standing on was absolutely not big enough for the both of us, so I jumped off to the next one and made my way to the landing, Lavitz hot on my heels.
“Fuck man!” I gasped, leaning back and speaking between panting breaths. “You need to, lose a few, pounds, fat boy! I can’t, feel, my arm!”
Lavitz choked out what may charitably be called a laugh.
Once we got our breath back, Lavitz walked up to me. “That’s three times you’ve saved my life, Dart.”
I snorted. “Nah, by my count it’s the first.”
We grinned, fist bumped, clasped hands and stepped forward, shoulder checking each other, the impact reverberating through our frames. We stepped back, laughed, and moved further into the cave, Lavitz throwing his arm over my shoulders and telling me about how pull-ups were his least favorite exercise, but he would incorporate more of them into his usual routine forevermore.
As we walked, I couldn’t help but feel I was forgetting something important.
“Guuuuys! Stop ignoring me! Heeey! Wait up! Your legs are way too long!”
Oh right.
