Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 034 - Part 1

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The Servant and the Stranger

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TheirWorld

“Who are you?” she demanded to know. “What do you want?” She couldn’t die, but that didn’t mean she would ever look forward to the pain of not dying. In fact, she was starting to wish that she could die.

One of the hunters with a sword stepped forward and removed his hood. He was very clean, and quite handsome. She recognized him from the Hunters’ Guild, but didn’t know his name.

“Little girl,” he started, holding his hand out. “Be good now and hand over the pelt that Dawl gave to you, and we will let you live.”

Guin snorted at him. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she tried to bluff - but it failed.

“Let’s not play that game,” the man said with barely a hint of a smile. “That pelt has great power - far too much for you. It’s a power that’s worth more than you life.”

“And this town?”

The man chuckled. “The price of that pelt would buy a mountain,” he said. “Now, hand it over.”

“... I don’t have it,” she told him, trying honesty.

“I said to not play that game!” he turned a bit red in the face. “Give it here!”

Guin crossed her arms and stared him down. “I told you, I don’t have it,” she said. “I gave it back.”

“Gave it back?” Gave it back!”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Guin said, narrowing her eyes, hoping that she would be right. “You were the one who killed the fox and threw her away to rot.”

But the man let out a laugh. “Of course not - Master Dawl killed and skinned the stupid animal - he just had no idea what it was he had, the fool. The pelt should go to me, not to you.”

Though her heart sank, she admitted it would be foolish to try and exempt the Master Hunter from all his faults. Rather, she would merely have to be satisfied with his repentance.

“Are you thick? I’ll say it again: I don’t have it,” Guin told him, her patience wearing thin. “The pelt has gone back to its rightful owner - and if you missed my meaning, it should be safe to assume that you are definitely not that owner, asshole.”

It may have been reckless, but the whole situation was making her mad.

The man flushed scarlet and pointed his sword at her face. “Are you saying that you are allying yourself with those god forsaken spirits, then? You would turn against the Lady?”

“Tsk,” went Guin, her stomach churning. “I really don’t think that’s at all what I am say, but it that’s how you want to interpret it, go ahead. I only did what I believed to be right - does the Lady teach something different? Does she say to steal and kill the forest?”

“Blasphemer!”

“... I really don’t see how an ignorant child like myself can be a ‘blasphemer’,” she wondered out loud. “But suit yourself.”

“Men! Let’s bury this one with the others!” Though the men behind him seems at least a little reluctant as the man in front started to charge forward, they raised their weapons.

Guin fox formed, which caused the man to smile maddly and shout obscenities.

Way to go, Guin. Getting ready to pounce, she lowered herself to the ground, trying to think of a scenario that would allow her to get out of this situation without getting shot or stabbed.

That is, she was ready - until she saw the tip of an arrow come out from the man’s throat. Her eyes widened involuntarily as she shrunk back. As blood dripped from the arrowhead, the man’s eyes rolled back into his head. His body fell, allowing her to look passed and see that the other sword bearer had also been slain, and the one with the spear was going after two of the archers, covering for an archer who was standing behind him, pointing his bow in her direction.

“What is this?” A voice came on a rush of wind. Reili appeared next to Guin at the mouth of the cave. “Che-people… Oh?”

“S-Sorry,” went Guin. “I didn’t think I’d run into them…”

Reili gave a curious smile. “But it seems that the results of such an encounter are not what one would have anticipated…” she murmured in an amused voice. “That one, with the spear - he bears the mantle of the dragon.”

“The mantle of the dragon?” Guin wondered allowed and looked at the man with the spear. “That’s -!” The cloak he worse was blue with a curious pattern to it, and shined when the light hit it.

It was the cloak Master Rew was wearing the the photo of he and Alta Noin.

The two archers that he had been fighting dropped their weapons and raised their hands in the air. The archer who had shot her attacker went over, and in a familiar voice commanded them, “Get out of here.”

“M-Master Dawl?” Guin said, shifting out of fox form. “Then… Pastor Jormund!”

With the enemy archers retreating into the forest, the archer removed his hood and revealed the grim face of the Master Hunter, while Jormund removed his cloak and seemed to sulk as he walked toward the mouth of the cave where Guin stood with Reili.

Dawl stepped up to Guin and knelt on one knee. “Forgive me,” he whispered. “I have betrayed your trust, and the trust of the forest. I knew of what you spoke of from the beginning.”

“He is not the only one at fault,” Jormund said, looking at Reili. “From the time Master Rew passed, I should have taken up this mantle…”

Surprised and thrilled, Guin smiled at both of them. “What matters now is that you are both here!”

“I don’t see how that matters,” Reili muttered. “Unless that one is a true Servant of the Dragon, neither of them are useful to us now.”

“... I am sorry,” Jormund looked at his feet.

“Oh, shut it,” Dawl growled. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Jormund glared at him.

“You certainly didn’t do anything to Guin - other than baby her.”

“I wasn’t talking to Guin either.”

Dawl opened his mouth, closed it. “O-Oh,” he went. “S-So… Ehem…”

“We have one who would be a Servant, but who is this stranger with the familiar scent?” Reili asked, sniffing at Dawl’s face. “This idiot cannot see me, can he.”

“No, my lady,” Jormund said. “If it please you, I can relay your words -”

“I do not know you nor trust you, fool,” the fox spirit said. “Guin shall do just as well as any other. Guin. Help the fool and be my voice.”

Nodding awkwardly, Guin told Dawl who was before him. He face visibly paled, but he bowed his head. “My lady,” he said, breathless. “I have done wrong. It was I who slew you, took your skin, and left your body to the wolves - though I should have known better than to court the corruption of the forest. I understand my fate in this. It was a Servant who taugh me of the woods. Though I could not comprehend the spirit world, it was not beyond me to understand one’s role in keeping the laws of the forest. I have cause all this unrest - the king that could end this land as we know it to be - and for that I know I must die.”

As Reili grinned widely at his words, Jomund’s jaw dropped as he fell to his knees. “No!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the depths of the cave. “No - My lady please, have mercy on him! He knows his wrongs, and he can fix thim! He can change! If a life must be had, then take mine!”

“Shut up, Jormund!” Dawl hissed. “This is my lot, not yours!”

“Yes,” the fox spirit said dryly, her face still in Dawl’s. “But it’s up to me what each of your lots are to be.”

Dawl, of course, noticed nothing, but Jormund brought his head up quickly. “My lady?”

Seeming to be bored now, Reili flicked her tail and looked at Guin. “Perhaps this fool was the one who killed and kept my pelt, but it is as he says, if he ‘left my body to the wolves’, then no law has actually been broken. He could be lying, though, so I won’t let him off just yet,” Reili turned to Jormund. “I shall give you a chance to save your lives...”