• Mature • VI. From This Place of Wrath and Tears

[Kasoria]

24rd Trial, Cylus, 719a
Mistral Woods, northwest of Mistral Village
Dawn

Continued from here

He got the first man out of the cave, but not the second. Walden would curse himself for arcs to come over that blunder. Every time the clouds darkened on the horizon, and he knew it would rain not by their sight, but by the twinging gnaw in his scars. Then the Warden of Mistral Village would shake his head and remember that cold, ugly night. The dark dawn that followed. What he had to do, and what he saw that foreigner dragging from the mouth of the cave.

"Where'd he get you?"

Kasoria pieced it together pretty quickly. It wasn't exactly a mystery for the ages. Once he'd done what he needed to, he started back towards the cave mouth he'd entered. It was as simple as following the bodies and the blood stains. He had to make plenty of stops, though. They slowed him up more than wondering which tunnel to take. That and the... extra weight.

Fuck it, he thought as he lurched and heaved and dug his heels in. Be worth it, come collection.

The torch that had been so disputed was the final marker, and as he stepped out from the yawning rock entrance, he frowned. There were more bodies out there than they'd left behind.

He approached the closest one, curled up like an infant would in the womb. The arrow had pierced his chest, but not his heart. Every breath was choking him now; every suck and push of air was futile agony. He couldn't get enough air into his lungs, but whenever he tried, he just drove the arrow deeper in. Kasoria squinted and pushed the man over with his boot.

Ah. Twitchy cunt. Means the one I pegged with the knife is-

"Y-You... ain't dead."

He looked over at the voice, and found Walden leaning against the tree. Still holding his stomach. Still red-handed. Still with the pulp-faced bowman Kasoria had let escape laying next to him. His ruined, cratered skull lolling sickly against Walden's leg, like his sweetheart that had fallen asleep. The rock he'd used to bash in his skull was between Walden's leg, more red than grey or black, flecked with bone shards and glinting ruins of teeth. Then Kasoria grunted as he saw the telltale knife still sticking out of the bowman's shoulder.

"Couldn't get to the knife, eh? Would a' been easier than the rock."

"Fuck... Fuck you..."

Kasoria snorted again and looked down at Twitchy. He'd probably come barreling out of the cave, sprinting ahead of the Bowman, and right into Walden's arrow. Didn't even know the man was there. But he was fast, too fast, and Walden's expertise didn't kill him. The Bowman would have been slower, wounded, and more cautious. He saw his friend go down, but he had an opening. Just a handful of trills while Walden got another arrow ready... and he took it, by the looks of things.

"Where'd he get ya?" He spoke as he bent down, something curved and shiny catching his eye. Shoved down into Twitchy's boot. "Gut?"

"I... I think so. S'pissin' blood, but... didn't get in anythin'."

"Hmm..."

Kasoria made a sound of low appreciation, like a maid finding a pretty dress. He pulled a dagger from Twitchy's boot, wooden handle inlaid with a scorched symbol. Some kind of insect or monster, with claws like a crab and a thick, curling, bulbous tail with an evil-looking tip. He tossed the knife from hand to hand, and nodded his approval of the metal ridges his fingers slid between. The killer looked down into the wide, drowning eyes of Twitchy, growing paler by the trill.

"Nice blade."

"P... Please..."

"You ain't gonna need it."

"Ple-please, no-"

SHUUUK

Walden had changed much in so few breaks. He realized that when he didn't so much as blink when Kasoria bent down, held on steadying hand behind Twitchy's head, then jammed the dagger under his chin and up into his brain. Twitchy shook and twitched like a doll being shaken by a child, but when Kasoria pulled the blade back out... there was nothing living in his eyes. The little man wiped the blade clean and slid it gently into the top of his own boot. The Warden shook his head, but did not say anything. He had his own problems. He looked down and winced, seeing the blood bubbling and gurgling from his stomach.

"I... I think I can walk."

"Well, you better be able to," Kasoria said, pulling the ax from his back, having reclaimed it from the cave floor before he emerged. "I ain't carryin' all those. Just the one I'm gettin' paid for."

"All the wh-"

Walden looked over and the words died in his throat. Like the skeletal of some deformed snake, head after severed head had been tied together by the hair and was laying on the ground in a line. Every man that Kasoria had killed, down there in the darkness. Struck from dead shoulders and claimed for the bounty money. Walden's jaw dropped and soon, it was not disgust or fear that overtook him. It was anger. It was outrage. Striking him as hard as the ax the little man raised and-

SHUNK

"You-You really are a f-f-f-fucking animal, Thagoras."

Kasoria didn't bother looking over. He just too Twitchy's head and tied it to the others. Kev's was in a sack, all by itself, horned helmet along with it. But there was bounty money for the rest, and he thought he might mollify Walden by bringing him the others. The Warden could get himself a nice bit of coin, if he could bring all of those back to civilization. Not as much as he'd be getting for their leader, but was was something. Of course, that was before the idiot got himself wounded.

"A'right," Kasoria said when he was finished. Ten heads, all tied together, were at his feet. "Get up."

"I... I'm trying." He was flopping and heaving as if there was boulders on his shoulders. But he wasn't going anywhere. "It's... It's not bad."

Kasoria didn't reply. Didn't speak. Didn't curse him or reassure him. That worried the Warden most of all. He could feel the cold blood in that old man's heart beating steadily around his veins. Hear the thoughts clicking and whirring and deciding things without emotion entering the debate. It was the Dark Season, and it was a trial's walk back to the village. The Tunawa would guide them, but a wounded man would attract predators, slow them down, maybe deteriorate so badly he couldn't be moved. What will Thagoras do then, Walden wondered. Carry me on his back? I doubt it.

He looked up and those cold, unmoved black eyes looked down at him. The man he knew as Thagoras shook his head.

"No, Warden. It is."

There was no noise in the clearing. Just the sound of two men breathing, the two men left alive. Then Kasoria's hand moved slowly towards-

"Perhaps I could provide an answer?"

A new voice split the silence. Soft and calm, yet striking them out of such quiet that they both twitched. Then Kasoria turned and saw where the voice had come from. He sighed, and his hand dropped back to his side.

"Wondered when you'd be getting back."

[Kasoria]

[bbvideo]MUSIC LINK HERE[/bbvideo]

"Fuck, this is gonna hurt."

"Not as much as my cock up you."

"What did y-OWFUCKCUNT!"

It was an old, cheap trick, but it did the job. Which is why people kept using it. Kasoria waited a half-beat after Walden's shocked gaze snapped to his face, making sure the man was focused entirely on his outrageous statement. Then he seized the moment, and slapped white-hot iron to red, runny flesh.

Men and Tunawa hissed and winced as the stench of burning meat assailed their noses. No smell like that in the world, mingled with boiling blood and hot steel. The little folk from the forest had brought poultices with them, fashioned from fungi and plants and no, Kasoria was not about to gainsay their expertise. Their kind had likely lived in the forest for generations, far removed from apothecaries and other trappings of civilized healing. They found ways to heal, or they died. But he knew his own business, too. He knew a wound had less chance of turning rotten if it was clean. And since they didn't have any fresh water or alcohol handy, well...

"Motherfuck!" Walden finally got enough breath back in him to spit out the curse and looked down at the wound. It was still sizzling and smoking and if he had enough in his stomach, he'd have purged it. But the bleeding had slowed, and judging by the blackened skin around the gash, there'd be nothing for infection to gain purchase on. "Bet you fuckin' enjoyed that."

"Not particularly," Kasoria said as he poured water over the gladius, steam rising with a hiss from the blade. "I ain't gettin' paid fer this part."

"Hold still, please..."

Kasoria watched as the Tunawa clambered up into Walden's lap and started stitching the wound closed. He'd offered to do it himself, but Sheensar was unconvinced that Kasoria had the subtelty to do it right. The Etzori considered telling the little man just how many times he'd sewn up his own fucking wounds, but decided to let it go. His arm was still a tingling mass, and wouldn't make for a steady grip. Instead he stayed close to the torch, enjoying the warmth and the light, and watching the little man work.

"Ain't gonna put that stuff on first?"

Sheensar didn't look at the bag of wet, stinking plant matter he'd had over his shoulder when he arrived. He was too focused on what looked like stitching a wall of flesh together. At his size, it wasn't an unfair comparison. "Stitches first, then the poultice. Putting that immediately into such a rend would be... unwise."

Walden grunted out a laugh, bleak and black-humored. "Don't think it can get worse fer me, mate."

The rising and falling needle paused for a moment. Long enough for the Tunawa to raise a critical stare in Walden's direction. "It most certainly can, human. Now please, hold still."

The Warden did the best he could as the little man sewed and stitched. Kasoria watched all the while, swigging from the water bottle now and then. His stomach was hardly turned at the sight. He'd dished out far worse in his time; blood and organs and agony were not things that bothered him anymore. But he frowned when the Tunawa stepped away and gestured to him to come over.

"Eh?"

"I need you to apply the poultice and bandage," Sheensar said, extending the bag towards Kasoria with both hands. "My hands are too small, it would take too long."

"We in a hurry?"

Sheensar shrugged in a way that was eerily human. It conveyed the same level of indifferent but insistent attitude that Kasoria could read before he spoke the words that followed. "Not particularly. But the longer he is within the woods, the longer he goes without one of your healers looking at that wound. I do what I can, with what I know works, but what I know works best on my people."

"Shite," Kasoria grunted, unable to argue with the logic. "A'right, give it 'ere..."

Supervised by the little man, Kasoria knelt down and curled three fingers into the bag. His hand came out wet and smelly and covered in pulped herbs. He grimaced but went about his task. He smeared the gooey substance over the wound until it obscured it completely, stitches and all. At Walden's hissing pain, he just rolled his eyes.

"Oh, grow a fucking pair, would you?"

"Let's cut you open an' see how you react."

"What is this stuff, anyway?"

"Calendula," Sheensar said, handing Kasoria a length of bandages. "It's a herb that grows here. We chop it up, mix it with water, and when it is like clay, we can use it. That's right, all the way around-"

"I know how to bandage a wound."

Sheensar didn't comment, but his expression was doubtful. Again, Kasoria held his tongue. Dawn had broken but the darkness would last for trials more. Cylus was a time of endless gloom, after all. They needed to get back to civilization, back to the village, and he had no time to waste in baiting people the size of his foot. Walden leaned forward as best he could, letting Kasoria get around his back. Around and around the bandage went, until Walden's stomach was fairly swaddled in it. No moisture seeped or soaked to the surface, and even Sheensar nodded appreciatively.

"Fine work."

"Thank yeh," Kasoria said, standing and hauling Walden up a moment later. The fact the latter was even capable of that was an improvement all by itself. "Now, you mentioned somethin' else yeh found?"

"Indeed. The wound on the Warden was more serious, so I thought it best to attend to that first."

"Aye, very nice of yeh," Kasoria said in the glib tone of a man who didn't much give a shit. "But what else were y'gonna say?"

Sheensar finally smiled. Clearly he liked knowing things, especially when others did not. He pointed to the cave, and then moved his arm so it was indicating the rough trail around the hill it was set into.

"Your coins and jewels were not all the Horned Man and his animals stole, Man of Etzos."

Kasoria rolled his eyes again, looking up as if beseeching the heavens for a straight answer. Some people just had to be so fucking theatrical...

[Kasoria]

As a city boy, Kasoria was used to most places being within walking distance. Food, work, healing, friends, family, they were all to be found within a half-break of brisk strolling across the cobbles. In the close confines of the city, where the streets were more often narrow and swelled with citizenry than wide and empty, being astride a horse would just slow a man down. Make him a target, too. Draw attention and that, Kasoria held no truck with.

Which is why he would not be getting on the back of that fucking donkey.

"You're scared."

"Fuck you."

"Shttin' bricks, I can tell."

"Shut up or I'll punch that fucking poll-tiss into yer guts an' see if you shit green later."

"Ahem?"

Both humans turned as one to the Tunawa watching them from the log. A dozen or so pairs of sapient eyes joined them. All others were busy chewing cud or milling around, or just watching with dull-eyed disinterest as the whole scene unfolded. Horses, cattle, oxen, goats, mules... all they were missing was a handful of sheep. Walden had chuckled at the sight of the rough pen the bandits had made, by building a fence up against the side of the hill, making it one of the four walls. Although "fence" and "walls" would be generous; these men clearly weren't farmers, used to such labors.

Were. Not weren't. Walden corrected himself. All dead now. Two of them thanks to you.

"If you two are done, we should start our journey."

Kasoria turned with a scowl to the Warden, holding his belly and walking with his bow used almost like a stick. "C'mon, I'll get youse on the mule. Fuckin' ridiculous..."

He bent down and let the Warden use his cupped hands as a boost, lifting him up onto the back of the donkey. The furry snout of the best whuffled and snorted and it shied a little, but did not buck or whine. Walden reached over and patted the side of its head, making shushing noises. Within a few bits, the animal was as peaceful as it had been when they'd found the enclosure. It didn't even complain when Kasoria looped another rope around its neck, lashing it to the mule in front.

"S'what you get, when you grow up in the country," Walden said with a faint air of triumph, to go along with his not-even-slightly-faint smug smile. "Y'know how to talk t'animals."

"Aye, both dumb beasts ain't good for shite," Kasoria grumbled, heaping his hideous necklace of heads atop the second mule. Walden refused point blank to be riding with the atrocity for the whole trial. Kasoria had to admit, he could see why. Already the flies were finding it... quite attractive. "A'right, think we're done here."

"Then follow me."

As they had arrived, so they left, but only in the way they came. This time a pair of mules walked away from the clearing, one bearing a wounded man, the other a grisly collection of skulls, all lashed together. Kasoria led the mules from the front, following the Tunawa skipping and jogging ahead of them. There was a bowl of Glow Grubs on each mule, in Walden's hand, in Kasoria's free one... and Sheensar held another. Enough to cast a fierce glow around them that seemed like a single, solid mass of cantering light from a distance.

"Would you have killed me?"

Kasoria sighed and looked over his shoulder. The moment had passed, and he'd hoped the man would be smart enough to forget it. He'd not get that lucky, apparently. They were less than a break into their journey back to Mistral Village. No torches, no lights. Just the stars above them, the glowing worms, and an endless mass of black forestry in every other direction. He thought up a lie... and decided against it. What point would there be, at this stage? What would he gain from a deception?"

"If you couldn't have walked? Aye. I would've."

There was silence from behind him. He thought that would be the end of it. Again, he was wrong.

"You're a cold bastard, Thagoras."

Kasoria shrugged and smiled, unseen by the man behind him. Thagoras. That's all the Warden would ever know him as.

"Better quick an' clean than lingerin' fer breaks or trials from a bad wound, mate," he said, managing to sound mocking and philosophical at the same time. "I'd have left food for yeh. Water. But I didn't know about poll-tiss, or whatever the little man called it. Woulda' just stitched it an' trusted t'luck you'd heal up. Gone back to the village, then back again... woulda' been a few trials. Maybe three, even with the Tunawa guidin' us. So-"

"I get the idea, bastard." Walden huffed and grunted. An unseen pothole had jolted him on the mule, and his wound along with it. "Just... wanted t'know."

There was a throaty, grating sound from in front of Walden. He thought for a moment that some predator was hunting ahead of them, before realizing it was "Thagoras" chuckling.

"Careful about that, mate. Sometimes, yer better off not."

Concluded here

[Octopie]

Unlocking Your Rewards!

Comments

Kas no. Stop dragging heads around cause that's fucking gross. But wonderful thread, the way you write is just, ugh, I love it! Great job here and nice to see this all wrapping up <3

Points

10

Knowledge

Skill
Blades (Dagger): Under The Chin, Into The Brain
Detection: Piecing Together How a Fight Transpired
Medicine: Making a Simple Poultice
Medicine: Applying a Poultice After Stitches
Medicine: Calendula Makes a Good Anti-Infection Poultice
Philosophy: A Quick Death Beats a Lingering, Painful One

Non
N/A

Loot

• One good quality dagger

Wealth

NA

Renown

NA

Injuries

NA