Private Tales What Does Not Kill Us

[Pern]

A couple hundred? That was likely the population of one corner of the Residential District of Elbion. She couldn't be certain, but the last number she'd heard from Gibbson after returning from a Merchant Council meeting was a flux of nearly 250,000 people within her home city. That hadn't even been during peak trade season. She could see how the crowds got to him - there were few other cities that she knew of with so many people as Elbion, fewer still with more.

Her brows lofted at this realization, gaze panning off towards the landscape to the south. Pern nodded, "It getsh a little crowded..." Understatement of the year.

She looked back to him, eyes looking at him in the waning light of day and noted the bandage on his head was likely overdue for a refresh. They'd been traveling for a few days already.

"I should look at that," Pern said, indicating on her own head the same location and then nodding to him, "looksh like it could ushe shome attenshun."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath frowned, touching his fingers to his own head where she had done. He found the rough, stained fabric beneath his fingers. He had almost forgotten about that.

There was a lot that seemed to fade into the background. The further he had come from pandemonium the more he had been filled with a nervous energy.

"Could you take it off. I will wash and then can be bound?"

However, she would find that most of the wounds had healed far more than they should have in just a day. The lighter scratches from the rough treatment of the city guard had almost entirely closed up.

 

[Pern]

A nod, "Of courshe."

Pushing herself off the ground she stepped over to his other side. At a head taller than her, Hath was of large enough stature that even sitting as he was, it was easier to see and reach if she remained on her feet. Pern leaned to inspect the gauze, gently plying it up from his skin. It stuck stubbornly, seemingly cemented in place by dirt, sweat, dried blood and the remnants of the poultice beneath. With a cringe she gave it a tug and slowly pulled it free.

"Hard to tell how it looksh," there was enough poultice left behind caked on the wound that she couldn't get a good look, "but your other cutsh sheem to have healed well."

Ignatius had treated a few of them just to be sure, but the only one bad enough to consider the bandage had been the one on his head. His shoulder still looked bad. Pern couldn't be certain, but it almost appeared as if the black tendrils and veins had spread a bit.

"Should only need one more treatment and bandage if it shtaysh clean."

 

[Hath Charosh]

He saw that look of concern at his shoulder. Another flash of anger rose up. There was nothing there. But there had to be something there. Pern and her master had no reason to lie to him.

You feel it too.

Hath frowned at the sudden voice in the back of his head. Each time he was certain it sounded less like his own.

"That's good," he said to Pern with a firm nod. "I'll go clean it."

He stood up slowly, starting to feel the aches and pains of the day. Hath picked up his short sword and carried it down to the water. He had learned not to be far from a weapon.

Approaching the river slowly, he peered into the clear depths. Nothing dangerous lurked nearby. He stayed away from the smooth pebbles of its shore to find a rough stone that fit well in his hand for scrubbing. He laid down his sword. And then every single thing he wore.

He walked slowly into the water, gasping at its cold kiss. All the way until it was past his navel and he could start scrubbing.

 

[Pern]

Pern nodded after him, taking her previous place by the fire and pulled from her bag her journal and graphite. It would pay to keep notes of her travels and all she learned, as Ignatius had suggested, and this being the first real opportunity of down-time she decided to take it. She wasn't much of a writer in terms of telling good story, that had always been Ignatius' thing, but she was good with keeping technical knowledge in her head.

A studious learner, her father always said. She should have been accepted into the college, who knows what sort of things she could have discovered if only they'd given her a chance.

The grasses surrounding the campsite hissed beneath a cross breeze, one that brought with it the sound of the river. Pern took a moment to glance over where Hath had taken to only to find the orc naked as the day he'd been born, barely up to midriff in the water. Golden eyes bugged, whoops, and quickly averted elsewhere. Except that elsewhere landed on another pair of eyes staring back at her from the tall grasses. They were greenish in nature and appeared ... intelligent?

"Hello?" Pern said curiously.
"Hello?" a voice echoed back.
"Are ... you friendly?" she reached to her left for where Hath's axe had been placed and curled her fingers around the weapon.
"Frien-ly?" said the voice, the eyes blinked, then suddenly disappeared. An eerie tittering echoed.

Alarmed, Pern scrambled to her feet, axe in hand, gaze flickering back and forth through the grasses in search of the owner of the disembodied voice and eyes.

"Ha-hath?" she called over her shoulder, "There'sh ... shomething ... shomeone ..."

"Hello?" the voice sounded again, to her left this time.
Pern yelped and turned so quickly she tripped over her own bag and landed on her ass.
Green eyes flashed, that tittering again, then they were gone once more.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath turned sharply at his name. He couldn't see what had caused Pern to cry out. Whilst she was going to be afraid of many things that did not pose a real threat to them out here, he could see the undergrowth trembling near the fire. She was looking in that direction.

Hath drove himself forwards through the resistance of the river. He ran the last few metres to dry land, splashing water in all directions. Hath barely even slowed to scoop up the short sword from the ground.

Prey animals did not typically follow the scent of meat and approach orcs in their camp. Hopefully there were some small scavengers edging closer, but he sprinted towards Pern just in case.

"Where? What?" he shouted as he slowed to a halt, holding his sword threateningly at the flora.

 

[Pern]

"There-" she said, pointing from where she still sat in a heap on the ground, axe in her other hand.

Green eyes blinked in the thicket where she pointed before disappearing again. She looked around, "No there!" another set of eyes, slightly yellowish in color off to their right.

A rising chorus of tittering echoed into the evening air, stirring the grasses on all sides now. Four sets of eyes opened, sitting over the gleam of yellowed, fang-filled grins. Laughter sounded, whooping and yipping laughter that Hath would more than likely recognize as the heralding call of a pack of gnolls.

"Hello?" said one.
"Frien-ly?" said another.
Hehehehehehehehe.

Gnolls weren't known for being especially well-spoken in the common tongue. Their own was a plains'speak that was hard to pick up and harder to replicate due to the manner of laughing whoops mixed in with body language and the expressions of the grin.

"Haaaaaa-haaaAAAA!"
One of them emerged from the thrushes, a sizable youth that had not quite yet reached his prime or full size. There was a seedy and large grin on his face as he stood erect, gesturing to them both with the point of a spear, he let loose a garble of words that ended with a high-pitched giggle, then pointed to the meat still sitting over the flames.

Pern's eyes grew eyes wider, brows lifting up into her hairline. She'd never seen a gnoll before that she could recall, but they reminded her of the beastfolk that Kaelen Silverblood had traveled with. Like his wolf companion who walked on two legs instead of four.

"Frien-ly," said another gnoll, a more feminine tone sounding as she stepped out of the grasses, also younger and carrying a bow and quiver full of arrows.

"Hen-lo," the third emerged to their right, larger than the first.

The fourth had yet to show itself.

 

[Hath Charosh]

He wasn't ready to give up the kill. Being alone, he would usually have left whilst they ate and tried to cover his tracks. Gnolls did form settlements but it was rare. Usually when they had a cave system to use or an abandoned village to take.

Often they roamed as a pack. This could have been the entire group and if they were poor hunters they would hound the two orcs for most of their journey.

"Away!" he shouted, waving the length of cold, hard steel threateningly. It wasn't as large as his axe, but he could still do plenty of damage with it.

"I fucking hate gnolls," he growled. With the Ashlanders they had eradicated a pack of them that had started wiping out the prey in the mountain regions. Where the two species were placed in direct competition for food there was usually violence.

Violence that part of Hath craved right now. That anger quickly percolated upwards and he took another step forwards, putting himself between Pern and the nearest Gnoll.

 

[Pern]

"Oh-oh," said the female, threading an arrow and drawing it, aimed for Hath, "frien-ly no."

The big one growled at Hath, openly salivating over the smell of the meat.

The first one to appear barked an order and all chaos suddenly broke loose. The female let her arrow fly at Hath and not but a moment later the large one to his right sprang towards him. The leader of the pack seemed to be holding off as the female drew another arrow, keeping her distance while the big guy tussled with Hath.

Pern watched frantically, having no instinctive notion of what to do or how to help. Grip tightening around the axe, she suddenly felt hot breath at her back and look up just in time to see the fourth gnoll standing over her. It snarled and lunged to snap its maw around her shoulder but bit down on the blunt edge of the axe instead.

Yelping in surprise, it swiped a clawed hand at her face and made to grab at her bag to drag it away. Took Pern a moment to blink away the stars and the sting across her cheek and brow before she realized what it had, "No - NO!" scrambling without a second thought, she threw herself at him as he yipped with laughter, bringing him down with her larger stature.

 

[Hath Charosh]

He roared in pain as an arrow cut across his shoulder opening a deep gash. If they were so quick to attack then they were clearly very hungry. He should have seen the signs. Instead he had been too quick to challenge them directly.

Rather than quickly learn this lesson, the pain lancing through his shoulder elicited a wall of pure rage. He lost his sense of direction too as he was dragged to the ground.

He had no armor on. He had no anything on. It was only his forearm that stopped the gnoll getting its teeth into his throat. They had a powerful bite that could crush bones. He drove his forearm into the gnoll's neck. It's voice suddenly turned raspy as it tried to breath.

It swiped at Haths head, catching his jaw. In return he swung a fierce punch at its temple, the collision sounding out around the clearing. As he held the dazed gnoll at bay he reached desperately for his sword.

 

[Pern]

Pern struggled with the gnoll that was so intent on taking her bag, little did she know he was only serving as a distraction. While she wrangled with him and Hath wrestled with the big guy, the female and their leader moved in on their meal at the fire.

The leader knocked over the spit, sending the cooking meat directly into the flame where it began to suffocate the fire. Sparks and embers flew, the female jumped over the pit to come to the big one's rescue, kicking away Hath's sword and pointing a drawn arrow directly down at his face. She barked an order at him, motioning to her packmate presently being held at bay.

"Give ... me .. that!" Pern was on top of the fourth gnoll, the axe now laying forgotten back in the grass, and looked up distractedly at a sudden loud, high-pitched call. The leader had collected the meat and was calling his pack off. It took only that split second for the gnoll to give her a swift hit to the gut, causing her to keel off to the side as he skittered out from beneath her.

"Yih yih yiih!" he called, slinging her bag through the air towards the riverbank and loping off with his tittering laughter to disappear back into the grasses.

Pern wheezed, pushing herself up and looking around wildly to see what had just happened. She spied Hath back at the fire and scrambled to get back to him, taking up his axe along the way.

 

[Hath Charosh]

The archer turned her head to look towards their leader. It was all the chance he needed. He reached up and snatched the arrow from her bow. A loud twang and crack followed as she released the bowstring. With no arrow to take the energy the limbs of the bow cracked.

His roar rang out he tapped a reserve of strength he didn't even know was there. The fire burned through his veins. The gnoll holding him down tried to stand and get away.

Hath grabbed its mane with an iron grip and drove the arrow head deep into its neck. A bright arterial spray covered Hath and the grass.

The orc rose up, tossing the writhing gnoll away like a toy. The female had turned to run but he closed the gap in several quick strides, bearing her to the ground. She struggled and squirmed but Hath struck the back of her head several times.

"Axe!" he demanded, looking at Pern as if he had just remembered she was there. His bare form was covered in bright blood and sweat and his lips were drawn back over his tusks. But below that, even more concerning that his effortlessly violent visage was the dark outline of his veins. The jet black had spread from his shoulder, all across his chest and rising up his neck.

He held out a hand for his axe, whilst the other pinned the writhing gnoll down by the back of the head. There was no sign of the other two.

 

[Pern]

Pern discovered the scene with a sudden onset of horror. It was like a murder scene. No - it was a murder scene. The larger gnoll was bent over strangely, extremeties twitching, breath gurgling as blood bubbled and pulled from his mouth and the wound in his neck. The female snarled and screeched, struggling to get away from Hath who looked as though he'd just taken a blood bath.

The smell was indescribable.

Frozen on the spot, saffron eyes pinned, lungs clenched with her breath, Pern glanced from Hath to the wailing gnoll and back again, mentally calculating just what scared her more. Her heart ached for the terrible sounds coming from the creature in his grasp, her stomach sank for the saturation of red, and her thoughts very briefly drifted back to the warning from Ignatius about the corruption of Hath's old wound. It had spread, she knew it wasn't a trick of the light because the fire was sputtering to stay alive as weakly as the dying gnoll.

Without really knowing what she was doing, Pern handed off the axe to him and sluggishly turned away. Tried to tune out the sounds of the struggle with the whispers of grasses under her feet and in the breeze. She made her back back down the hillside to look for her pack and upon finding it dropped to her rear and put her head in her hands.

What was she doing out here?

 

[Hath Charosh]

There was a loud crack. For how loud it was, the silence that followed was far, far deeper. Nothing seemed to stir after the final blow.

Hath padded down to stand beside her. His axe hung loosely from one hand, the head swinging just inches from the ground. His breath filled that silence. The pain he felt didn't hold him back. It was a weapon. A blinding energy that fuelled his rage.

"Did they just take the meat?" he asked.

He wanted her to say no. He wanted her to tell him that they had stolen something vital. Anything to give him a reason to chase after those gnolls and finish the job.

 

[Pern]

Pern was having a hard time finding a rhythm of breathing again. She didn't feel winded, though her middle was a bit sore, but her lungs just couldn't seem to relax enough to take a full, deep breath. Was this an anxiety attack? Why did her heart hurt more than the slashes on her face?

She didn't look up at his approach, recognizing the sound of him well enough by now to know it was Hath and not another gnoll sneaking up. Her gaze did peek over to the bloodied axe, drip drip dripping a trail as he walked. Too fixated on the slaughter to even realize that Hath was still completely naked.

A nod was given, Pern looked back to her bag now settled securely at her feet. The prospect of losing it and its contents was enough to give her a heart attack. Not for their necessity, per say, but for their sentimental value to herself and her father.

"Yesh," she managed finally, "I think sho."

Part of her wanted to ask if that last one was dead, but another part of her told her that was a stupid question that she already knew the answer to.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Go after them. Make sure the two of them never both you again. Tear them apart. Make them suffer.

Hath's fingers tightened around the haft of his axe. He turned to look in the direction the gnolls had left. They were rushing. They were frantic scavengers; they would leave tracks.

Pern's sharp breathing cut through his train of thought. He looked down and finally saw the situation he was in. This wasn't even slightly normal for him, let alone Pern. He was undressed, soaked in blood and thinking only of more gruesome murder.

There was a soft thud as the head of the axe fell to the turf, followed by the sound of it toppling to one side. The fire in his veins burned itself out and it was glorious agony.

Hath dropped slowly to his haunches beside Pern. He didn't dare reach out to her.

"Then it is only meat."

The darkness that was etched into a fractal pattern across his flesh slowly started to recede.

"Are you hurt?"

 

[Pern]

It's only meat.

That's right. They could always hunt again, so far as she could tell there were plenty of prey creatures in these lands. No telling what the lands to come would bring, though. And they had rations, needs be. They weren't doomed with their loss for tonight - not physically anyway.

Presently, she felt pretty doomed emotionally, but it didn't served anyone to just come apart at the seams at the first sight of blood or violence. Even if it had been outlandishly gruesome for Hath's standards. She liked to think this wasn't normal for him. Her nerves wouldn't be able to bear it for long if it was.

A quick shake of her head as his answer, "No ... jusht ... shcratshed me a bit." Her face was openly bleeding and in the city would likely have gotten some stitches. Out here the best they could do was clean, poultice, and move on.

"I'll be fine. ... are you?"

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath sighed and looked down at his shoulder. The arrow had skimmed it. It left a two inch cut through the flesh, but at least it was clean. At a distance a direct strike might have healed better, depending on the arrow head. As close as he had been to the gnoll a direct hit would have left him with an arrowhead embedded in bone.

"It is not so bad. Might need binding. We will try and avoid any more violence on the way," he said. "I am sorry for that."

You are a pathetic creature. Take up your axe. All that I give you and you whine and moan and grumble and...

"Shut up," Hath growled, before Pern could even reply.

 

[Pern]

More nodding. Yes. Not so bad. Simple wounds she could easily tend to. They could clean up, pack up, and maybe move as far away from this campsite as possible. Soon. Pern didn't think she could bring herself to going back to that blood-soaked mess.

She looked up at him, finally, trying to avoid looking anywhere else other than his face due to the blood, his nakedness still not fully registering in the lingering shock of everything. "I-"

"Shut up."

Pern blinked, a look of bewilderment flashing across her face. Had she done something wrong? Her lips pulled into a frown. Maybe all the stress made him not want to have to work at speaking common right now? This ... moment seemed very strange. She let her gaze drift away from him and back to her bag, slowly reaching to pull it into her grasp so she could ...find something to do other than sit here in a silence that was growing more uncomfortable by the second.

 

[Hath Charosh]

I will not be silenced by the likes of you. No power, no authority, you command no respect.

"What are you?"

Stop asking stupid questions. What I am does not matter. What we could be does. Not a meek fool. You should rule your tribe. Rule all the tribes. Embrace your strength. Do not hide from it. Leave this pathetic disgrace to your species behind.

Hath tilted his head to one side and closed his eyes. The muscles in his neck stood taut and he groaned in pain. His hands opened and clenched.

"I will not!" When Hath's eyes opened their were jet black, from pupil to the edge. He breathed sharply and then slowly crumpled back to the grass.

 

[Pern]

"What are you?"

Pern's frown deepened, her brow following suit. Was ... he about to give her a verbal reeming? Or maybe a scary pep-talk? What are you Pern? You're an Orc. Orc's aren't afeared of -

Hath groaned. Pern looked over at him to find him clenching in pain? "...Hath?"

"I will not!"

The orcess couldn't recall ever getting to her feet faster, but there she was, on her feet with bag in hand, watching Hath with a gaze full of alarm and legs ready to start running. "Hath!" she yelped at him, her own deep voice cracking in fear, "What'sh wrong with you?" Was she seeing things or were his eyes black?

"I'm shorry if I meshed up - I didn't know!" about gnolls, or anything out here, really.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath heard her voice, but it felt distant. As if she was calling to him from several rooms away.

We grow stronger. Change is inevitable. Stop fighting it.

Hath slowly turned his head towards Pern. The inky blade slowly drained from his eyes and the corruption seemed to recede back to his shoulder.

"Pern?" he asked softly, blinking and shaking his head. He felt as if he had been swept up in a storm and unceremoniously dumped back out on the ground. He was still near the river, still naked, still covered in blood.

 

[Pern]

"You..." Pern shifted anxiously, checking their surroundings at the sound of hissing grasses again and wondering if the gnolls had returned or if it was just the breeze. There came no movement, no jittering laughter, by the time she looked back Hath's eyes were normal.

"You weren't yelling at me?" now she wasn't so sure what had just happened.

"Shomething jusht happened to you," she gave him a wary glance, "your eyesh ... they turned black."

 

[Hath Charosh]

"No. I was..." Hath looked at Pern and then down at his hands. His arms were covered in blood. It was not anyone else's fault that he had dealt with the gnolls in such a brutal manner. There was no one here to be talking to except Pern.

"I have always had black eyes," he replied. Hath made a very poor job of trying to hide how disconcerting the whole experience was.

That hadn't been his own voice. That had been something else. It was not just disconcerting. It was frightening.

 

[Pern]

"Not ... like that," Pern shook her head, "they were different. You were different. The corruption..."

That was a touchy subject for him as she knew. He hadn't believed them back at her home but surely, surely he'd believe her now?

"It got worshe. I shaw it on your neck ... your fayshe." Blinking, brow setting, Pern's frown pulled deeply around her tusks, "it ish ash my father shaysh."