Ascent - Stickdom

[Stickdom]

Her rescuer's hesitance was almost unnoticed but for his voice betraying what sounded like the slightest hint of an accent, though if so one disguised expertly. His commands were for her to find safety, but with no other living residents of her village on these streets, she felt that her best chance at survival was to follow the steps of this man who could obviously hold his own against these monsters. But, his assumption that she would scurry away was obvious, he had turned his back to her and begun to walk the streets again, momentarily joined by a woman warrior. This woman Kathina assumed to be the one who had killed the first monster as she had run to her own house, and apparently in league with this man who had saved her in the second instance.


Though she had been told to find safety, Kathina had been given no direct instructions and assumed that she was free to follow them as she saw fit. Therefore, she followed after the pair of warriors, though not so close as to be breathing down their necks, unsure of how they would handle her accompanying them, she remained a respectful distance back, keeping to the darkened doorways and shadowed street curbs as she kept just out of the range of their torchlight.


@Grey

 

[Grey]

They ignore you, or perhaps are too intent on other matters to notice you, with more black-clad warriors joining them as they proceed until there are five in total, and the dark-skinned woman.


One of them, a much younger man with clean, soft features glances in your direction from under a hood, but they spare you no other attention before pausing near the edge of the village in a loose huddle.


"Communer," the hammer-wielding old man says, and the way they stand around him suggests he's the leader.


"Outside our reach?" Asks one.


"No one is outside our reach. Falkner, do you still have that arrow?"


"Aye, sir."


"Good. Mareikka, this one is dangerous; a shapeshifter, able to heal fast. If you can keep it distracted Falkner can kill it."


"I can kill it!" She hisses, offended.


"I suggest you do so faster than he can fire, then."


"Where is the damn thing?" Says another, gruff-voiced woman.


"Good question. Where's that girl?" Says the leader, glancing around.

 

[Stickdom]

Kathina suspected didn't suspect they knew of her presence, she had often been the best player of their childhood hide-and-evade games in her younger years, creeping quietly along, earning her the nickname of "Mouse" from the larger and more clumsy children. So, as she listened in to their council from a darkened doorway, making direct eye contact with the young warrior caught her off guard, he had surely seen her there with as intently as he was staring, as if his gaze pierced the darkness. But, she was not berated or even spoken to, simply noted and mentally set aside.


She listened as this band spoke of the monsters as though they were quarry, prey to be hunted for sport, not the slightest inflection of fear in their voices, only confidence and surety of a kill. Then, the leader began to seek out "that girl" while peering into the shadows, an obvious referral to herself. Despite her desire to stay hidden, cloaked in the safety of the shadows, Kathina felt almost compelled to step forward and respond. Nearly stammering, but not forgetting her manners learned through serving customers, she called out "H-how may I be of service, sir? I don't know the first thing about these beasts." She did not ask aloud the questions burning in her mind, "Why are they here and why now? Where did they come from?"


It took all of her nerve to resist the urge of sobbing in terror here, frightened as her thoughts danced around the concept of what exactly these monsters were capable of or where they originated. But she felt that tears would not remedy the situation any and that if she had any hope of seeing her family again, she would have to remain calm and inwardly strong enough for both herself and her parents.


@Grey

 

[Grey]

The leader turns to you, mildly surprised.


"Tenacious. Stealthy. Hrm." He seems to be thinking. "Why I do not know, nor do I care. Where is this doctor you mentioned likely to be?"

 

[Stickdom]

Thinking for but a moment, Kathina responded with "He spent most of his time in his room at our wayhouse, but I have just come there from and not a soul was there but my own and the monster you slew." She thought back as far as she could of what she knew of the doctor who had for so long stayed with them. His habits were spontaneous, he was either studiously locked away in his room, presumably preparing tinctures and medicines with his extensive collection of vials and pestle-mortars, or was running those same cures to those who needed them around the village, or... "The barren field! At the corner of the village where the forest and the stream meet. He spent afternoons there, collecting his materials from the woodline and the stream bed. As I think of it, it hadn't grown after he came into the town, the crops never grew and the farmers gave it up for lost."

 

[Grey]

"We can't afford to split up. Show us the way, girl - we're close enough to the field, I suppose. Start there."

 

[Stickdom]

"Aye, sir," she said, mimicking the formality she had seen among the warriors gathered here. the thought passed into Kathina's head then and there that if she were to remain an asset and not be cast aside after her usefulness was spent, she would do well to integrate herself into this group if she were to have any chance of seeing her parents alive again, or herself living to see them so. She took off at a run across the town square, knowing all of the alleyways and passages well from memory, and she assumed that such as the group that she was leading would have no difficulty in keeping with her pace, she did not so much as glance back to see if she held their attentions, the heavy footfalls behind her assured her of that much. Through the abandoned mercantile district she lead them, past the shops with festival decorations left unattended and deserted streets with bonfires still ablaze, casting dancing shadows on darkened street corners. Over the fence that protected the farmer's crops, traipsing on the newly-sprouted greens and shoots, then over another fence again onto a dirt road, then a fence again into the next field, her chase lead them out into the open fields freshly tilled, until they came at last to the edge of one left barren, and she stopped behind the fence to catch her heaving breaths.