If Ysmur noticed the thought that crossed my mind, she didn’t say. Instead jerking a thumb over her shoulder with a backward glare, a gruffness to her voice as she spoke. “On the outskirts almost near where the forest starts, you’ll find the potato beds and Uncel,” she set her hands on her hips and I could see the faint scratches and bruises littering the back of her gnarled knuckles. “Careful of the tall grass, bunch of nasties been creeping around lately.”
“Nasties?” I asked, wincing at how quiet my voice was, and her brows furrowed. She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something but then thought better of it.
“Nothing’s been right as ‘a late,” she muttered under her breath as she rucked up the rolled sleeves of her undershirt to the broad curve of her shoulder. “Hurry on, if any stragglers come this way, I’ll knock them back myself.”
I almost thought to ask her if the rats were that serious. A common household rat wasn’t even that large but from the way she looked at me, I wisely kept the words and thoughts to myself.
After the battle I had with the prickle boar, if it could be called that, I figured that combat was down to a matter of who wailed away the hardest or got hit the least. It wasn’t a smart idea by any stretch of the imagination but when I was under constant observation — checking stats and looking over equipment wasn’t an option. Then there was the sinking feeling when I ran the words from the quest’s description over and over in my mind.
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, dry and heavy. I didn’t even want to swallow once I cleared past the farmstead, racing through the tall grass and wheat stalks. Nubi squirmed free of my clothes having hidden once Ysmur’s back was turned, and whizzed past my head into my line of sight.
“Air, are you sure you’re ready for something like this?”
“Do I have much of a choice?”
In all honesty, I was a little tired of being the one everyone had to save. Being pushed from one place to the next with only outstretched hands to grab onto. Secondhand information piecing together what little knowledge I had. Every foothold being snatched right from under me to where I had to pick myself up without fail. Wouldn’t that be enough to drive anyone a little crazy?
What about that was heroic?
The wooden club’s weight slowed me down a bit as did Nubi’s worried gaze but I had something to prove. Not to anyone else, but to myself. One way or another, I was going to learn how to survive in this world on my own two feet and with my own hands.
And there was the added worry. If I didn’t do anything, what would happen to Uncel?
The potato beds were actually several rows of plowed dirt dug out in neat lines with sprouts forming on sodden earth. There was a thick humidity in the air and a strange smell. Although the grass wasn’t as tall as it was around Ysmur’s home, it still reached past my knees and tickled the back of my legs as I tread through. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as I looked around, eyeing the scarecrows stuck in the middle of the fields, chickens roaming about feeding, a wooden tower that might’ve served as a guard post although I couldn’t see anyone atop of it.
“Where’s Uncel?” I murmured, half to myself and the other to Nubi, unable to blame them for the chill sweat cooled at the back of my neck.
If Uncel was out here then wouldn’t we have heard the sounds of fighting?
An odd noise choked between a squeak and a grunt wrenched free from my throat as something seized my leg. Yanking me backward so hard I nearly bit through my tongue with how quickly I clamped my jaw shut. Nubi’s cry of my name was drowned out as blood pounded in my ears and a pair of beady blue eyes bore into my own. Nasties in the tall grass.
Fuck, why didn’t I listen?
Just as my leg was almost yanked from under me, I swung the club in an arc, connecting with something hard and angry. A pitched squeal shrieking in my ears, my ankle chafing as the tether around it yanked back roughly while the thing I struck hit the ground with a loud thump. Stumbling backward on my back foot, I nearly toppled over into the grass before shuffling up to my feet, careful not to keep down for too long in case anything else tried to grab me.
It was hard to make out anything with how dense the grass was, only the shifting and scuttling, irate squeaking and growls to tell I wasn’t alone. Nubi zipped to my head and I held the club firmly between my palms, looking over my shoulders and ahead of me as the area around me came alive with hissing and scurrying. If the grass was clear then I would’ve been able to see them coming but trying to mow it down like this would take forever.
My eyes widened as I stared down at the club, hissing in a hurried breath, “Nubi hide!”
On command, Nubi disappeared into the collar of my jacket and I squeezed the club. How did I do this before? I wanted to keep myself from falling and I threw out my hands and the air shot me backward. So, this time…
I spun on my heel as quickly as possible and heard the scurrying get closer just as the wind picked up, howling in my ears. ⸢ AIR BLAST ⸥ scratched out in front of my eyes in bold black lettering. My arms vibrating, a featherlight feeling almost making me feel weightless as the club in my hand grew heavier. Every rotation only made me dizzier and the beady blue eyes watching me were in a blur until everything became muddled colors, mixing together. The wind howling so loud it almost gave me a headache and I shut my eyes tightly, the words becoming white at the back of my eyelids before fizzling out in particles of light.
When my eyes shot open, the wind exploded outward and the top half of the club exploded into splinters of wood as I threw it upward. What felt like a dozen loud screeches were circling around me and I looked up, yelling at the sight of a dusky grey cloud swirling and churning several feet over my head. Large rats squealing and clawing at one another, unable to find ground as they were tossed around by some unseen force, dirt and grass surrounding them, pieces of it drifting down around me. I panted, gasping for breath and lowered the club. But just as I did, the cloud began to fall and I yelped, diving for the nearest potato bed and rolling much to Nubi’s chagrin.
Groaning, I shielded my eyes as the cloud hit and exploded sending dirt and grass flying everywhere on impact. Dying screeches tearing at my eardrums and I clamped my hand over my right one, shuffling backward to the post of a scarecrow, barely able to see. When the dust settled, I dared to open one eye and then the other, coughing and covering my mouth with my sleeve. The ruined club thudding against my leg as I staggered forward and gasped. Where I’d been standing, the grass and dirt had been upended leaving nothing but a layer of dark topsoil. Blades of grass scattered with clumps of soil and overturned bodies.
Rats which were definitely not the ones you could simply pick up by the tail, scattered about on their sides or backs, some unmoving. One nearest to me, still twitching with its eyes flicking wildly, hissed as I came closer. Its eyes met my own and I swallowed this dull sickness in my throat. Claws scraped at the dirt as the rat tried to scramble onto its stomach, longer than the club in my hand, and thicker around too. It could’ve easily been the same size as the prickle boar if not a little smaller. Beady blue eyes sunken into white fur clumped with dirt bore into me and the sickness in my throat traveled onto my stomach. I swallowed and clutched the wood tighter.
This was a game, right?
When I kept hitting the boar, its back was to me but this one was staring me in my eyes. My hand trembled and I opened my mouth but not a word came out but a cry. Something had grabbed my leg again, but this time I could see it. The rat’s tail dragging me to the ground, my head smacking against the earth and Nubi tumbling out of my jacket with a loud shout of my name echoing in my ears as the rat’s clawed paw swiped inches away from my face. My breath hitched when it stopped, claws barely centimeters from my nose, a dirty wet palm smacking against my face. The beady blue eyes bearing down on me began to empty, blanking out to a dull grey. I held my breath as something warm and sticky sept out onto my stomach, the corpse toppling over to lie atop of me, an arrow sticking out the side of its head.
Someone else killed it.
An archer?
From where?
I swallowed and shoved the corpse off of me, stumbling to my feet and turning to scoop up Nubi as I heard something from behind. Whirling around and hiding Nubi close to my chest, I stared bewildered at a burly stranger walking across the barren earth with a mule in tow. Wooden wheels, rickety and creaking, turn and clunk against the rocks the cart rolled over. Quiver full of arrows and a wooden bow visible over the stranger’s sloping shoulders, their hair cut short to a fuzz, As they neared, the stranger took a sweeping glance then hummed heavily, knocking a few of the bodies with the toe of their mud-covered boots. Sharp brown eyes flicked in my direction and I shifted unsurely, glancing around for the remnants of Ysmur’s club. I was unsure of how I would confront someone who looked at me like a hawk. Strong arms folded across their chest and they tipped their head, one eyebrow raised.
“And who’re you supposed to be?”
I opened my mouth then closed it, reminding myself that it would’ve been better to say something. They could even help me find Uncel. Hopefully. “Air,” I answered quietly, the sound deafening to my own ears after the loud boom from before and their approach. “Are you… Uncel?”
Their brows furrowed and for a second, panic shot through me as I thought that I might have gotten it wrong. “I’m not your unc—” I blinked slowly, and they blinked as well, huffing appreciatively. A small smile curling at their downturned lips. “Oh, you said it right.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, I hardly expected them to be in front of me in barely a blink. Circling me once and then twice with a cursory hum, eyebrow raised and muttered words that I couldn’t quite catch. “So you’re the kid Fu was sending over,” 'Uncel' said, stooping down to pick up the destroyed club that’d rolled over into the rut of one of the potato beds.
I hesitated, glancing aside at the corpses littering the ground around us wondering how unfazed 'Uncel' could be in the face of all this. “What kind of rats are these?” I asked tentatively, unsure if I wanted to know.
'Uncel' snorted, tossing the club up then catching it neatly in the palm of their hand, offering it to me with the unsplintered end. “Y’know, I never stopped to ask. Mind doin’ the honors for me?” With an incline of their head toward the arrow-skewered rat and I grimaced, shaking my head curtly.
“No thanks,” I side-stepped them as they breezed past me to the cart, the mule nosing at the grass. “They don’t really seem to be the talkative type.”
Presumed-Uncle laughed. Or at least, it sounded like a cross between a laugh and a scoff. The back of the cart was covered with a beige patch-covered tarp and with one sharp tug, it was pulled aside. I almost wanted to ask what the purpose of the tarp and the cart were but 'Uncel' gestured to the ground around us with the flick of a wrist. “You do this?”
I wasn’t sure whether to say yes or no. On the off chance this wasn’t Uncel, I didn’t want to give away more than I already had. With a slight shrug, I turned the wooden club over in my hands. “More or less.”
'Uncel' pinned me in place with a stare that almost made me shudder. The same icy feeling that gripped my heart like with Rhesh and the others, but different. In a flash, it was gone and 'Uncel' was setting the tarp over the mule’s rear. “Let’s take of these then head back to Ysmur, assuming she sent you on Fu’s account.”
“Take care of them?” I asked, looking around. “They won’t just disappear on their own?”
'Uncel' snorted, patting the mule’s side then turning to me with a sympathetic look. “You’ve been listening to those ⸢ PLAYERS ⸥ too much, kid,” before I could correct them to call me ‘Air’, they continued on as if my mouth hadn’t opened. “Only way those bodies are going to disappear is if something eats it, they’re buried, burned, or waste away like nature intends.”
My mouth snapped shut. I did find it a little strange that the bodies hadn’t vanished. Not even the prickle boar vanished. I actually carried them to town and couldn’t even absorb it in my inventory. Or at least, I hadn’t tried. 'Uncel' blew an audible breath and waved at me dismissively, walking over to the arrow-skewered rat lying at my feet. Its glossy eyes staring up at me and my stomach turned until 'Uncel' hoisted it up on their shoulder and stared down at me sternly.
“Things don’t just disappear.”
Why did those words feel so two-sided? With a cursory glance, 'Uncel' turned away from me and hauled the rat’s corpse to the cart. I stuck the club in the dirt and pushed up the jacket’s sleeves, moving to help but in the short span I’d managed to lug four up onto the cart, 'Uncel' had already cleared out the rest. It made my stomach turn to see how many were lurking about in the grass waiting for a chance to pounce.
If I hadn’t moved, it would’ve killed me. Just like the boar, and like everything else in this world. 'Uncel' tugged the cloth from the mule’s rear and tossed it over the corpses, hiding them from view. Even without seeing their colorless eyes, I could still make out the image of the rat that’d died in front of me. Looking back to Ysmur’s club, I went to gather it and hesitated when I saw the top of it.
Oh.
The cart’s wheels started rolling again but 'Uncel'’s footfalls approached from behind me. “Ah, well ain’t that somethin’…” they muttered in a soft, awed tone. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll carve another one.”
Blinking out of my stupor, I held it up and looked to them curiously. “She made it by hand?”
They gave me a strange look and shook their head, murmuring something under their breath before saying aloud. “Well how else is a weapon supposed to be made?” With a clap to my shoulder that almost knocked me over, they turned away. “Fu did say you were a weird one. Fit in alright with Shali.”
I wasn’t sure to make of that. Hurrying to catch up to 'Uncel'’s side, I asked. “Granny Fu’s… grandchild?”
“Met her before?” 'Uncel' asked, looking back to me.
“No, I’ve just heard about her.”
“Ah, well you two might get on well….” They shrugged lightly, patting the mule’s flank to encourage them through the tall grass. “Or be mortal enemies. Then again, ain’t seen the girl all day.”
That didn’t sound good. Hesitantly, I hurried to walk ahead of them. “Is that strange?”
“Nah,” Presumed-Uncel stiffened their jaw and cut a sideways glance toward something I couldn’t see. “She’s always been the adventuring type. It’s just what she gets up to that’s the worry.”
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