Chapter 25 - As The River Flows

“So, about that river, oh great vaunted hunter and master of the wilds?”

Skyle would have loved to respond with some sassy comeback, but couldn’t find the heart to. Not after seeing how soaked in sweat Leon was after the two hour trek they had undergone just now, all through woods steeped in shadows, with precarious footing and while bearing another person on his back.

Instead, Skyle opted for the high road.

“The tracks continue this way. These tracks are overlapping with old ones, meaning this is a trail they follow often. That greatly increases the chances a water source is nearby.”

“Chance doesn’t seem to be smiling on us of late, don’t you think?” Leon wheezed.

“Aw, my lordship is sad? And here I thought you were the great fiery lord summoner supreme with the big muscles and flaming cape,” Skyle rolled his eyes. Alright, so he couldn’t resist poking fun at the great flaming Lord of whining about everything he seemed to think he was entitled to.

“Left it back at my castle along with my kick the smartass farmboy’s ass boots,” Leon countered, though there was no malice in it. “Seriously though, this march is killing me.”

“Here, you really should try these,” Skyle offered the pink, oval shaped fruits he had plucked from a peculiar looking plant the last time they had taken their break. “They’re really not that bad, and they have a high water content.”

Leon instantly recoiled from Skyle and shook his head in disgust. “Ugh, I still can’t believe you actually picked up those things, let alone eat them.”

“They’re pretty good, what’s the matter?” Skyle popped another one into his mouth.

“What’s the matter? Oh what a great question. Here, let me see if I can find an answer, as impossible a challenge as though it may seem. First, how about the fact that you had to shoot the flaming, daemon-accursed plant first before it could bite your face off? Then there’s the little detail about it actually bleeding, as in blood, real red blood. From a plant!”

Leon flailed his arms wildly about, his eyes glimmering with the deep-seated horror that belonged to the survivor of a horror tale. He had to swallow loudly before he continued with a voice thick with revulsion.

“And please let us not forget the fact that it was growing out of a dead bull’s ass. Yes, I do not jest, a bull. A dead, rotting bull. And not from its back, not from its flank, not even from its head. From its god-forsaken, stinking, decomposing ass!”

Skyle stood impassively, listening to Leon’s tirade while nodding his acknowledgement that yes, the other boy was in fact correct, and that all of his points seemed quite valid.

Leon stood there frozen, staring at Skyle with his arms spread wide to his sides, gesticulating wildly and saliva flying from his mouth. After a moment, and seeing that the expected reaction would not be forthcoming, Leon flailed his arms again and screamed frustratedly at the other boy.

“Look, I told you that according to my True Sight, they should be perfectly safe to eat,” Skyle chuckled, popping another of the fruits into his mouth. They were extremely juicy, with just enough sweetness and a tangy finish that he had to admit to himself, they really were pretty damn good. In fact, he immediately said as much to Leon.

For growing out of a putrefying bull’s ass, that is.

“That’s not the point!” Leon roared, his horrified eyes visibly cringing each time Skyle took another bite from the small fruits. “I don’t care how it tastes, it is a matter of principle! You just don’t eat rotting shit from a dried up bull’s ass, and I don’t care if it’s the gods’ own divine nectar and your tongue is more dried up than my grandfather’s - may Avaria rest his soul - old boots!”

Skyle paused for a moment and looked into Leon’s eyes with a somber expression. Only then, and with a slow, deliberate motion, did he pluck another fruit and toss it in his mouth.

Leon shuddered and closed his eyes involuntarily, his face turning green as he turned away, unable to witness this horror any further.

“Your loss, big guy,” Skyle simply shrugged, chewing happily in between words. “You don’t want the fruit, then you’ll just have to wait until the tracks we’re following lead us to this area’s watering hole.”

“Well, how about these ones right here?” Leon approached a tall tree to his right, plucking a plump round fruit about the size of his fist, gleaming with a healthy, eye-catching red skin. “Now this here fruit is what I truly call the quintessential fruit. It looks like a winning combination of the humble, yet glorious tomato and the queen of all fruits, the ever delightful apple. Surely, it should be safe to eat, and furthermore, be a far more pleasant fare than that abomination you’re hellbent on consuming?

“Sure, you’re right. That should be perfectly fine to eat,” Skyle nodded graciously, waving his hand towards the fruit in Leon’s hand. “If you want to keel over and die in, oh, fifteen minutes maybe? Perfect combination of diarrhea and vomit, if you ask me.”

Leon dropped the fruit as though he’d been bitten, and slowly turned his head in Skyle’s direction.

“Nope, not kidding at all. Dead serious, Lord summoner. So, care for some fruit?” Skyle held out the fruit to Leon with a beatific smile.

In the end, Leon actually refused, his face going even paler. Apparently, even legendary elemental summoners and heirs of great houses have their standards, which they absolutely won’t compromise.

Or perhaps his lordship simply has a weak stomach.

In any case, they resumed their march, Skyle scanning their surroundings with the True Sight while Leon grunted and sweated what precious liquids he had left, all the while cursing loudly at whatever sadistic gods had created the bullcrap fruit.

His lordship’s own invention, that expression. That one would go down into the annals of history, to be sure.

In all honesty, if his life had truly depended on it, Skyle knew that Leon would have taken the fruit. After all, they still had blood and bits of intestine plastered all over themselves from when they had dug themselves into the chest cavity of a large, dead mammal.

However, as a skilled tracker Skyle was fairly certain they would find water soon, given the signs they’d seen from the forest around them. In the meantime, Leon hemmed and hawwed, and Skyle simply went along with it, all the while both boys knew it was a half-hearted attempt to shy away from the horrors of their experience so far, and the uncertainty of things yet to come.

Eventually, Skyle did tap Leon’s shoulder in order to stop his newest tirade about the absurdity of Mercedian virgin wool being sold exclusively during two of the hottest months of the year and commanding such a ridiculous premium. In truth, Skyle had almost given in to the temptation of unsheathing his knife and just putting an end to their misery right then and there.

Still, saner heads and prevailed and Skyle had almost sobbed in joy when he had heard the whispered promises coming from the distance. They cried river, and Skyle almost did cry from the relief. As soon as Skyle motioned Leon to stand still, they were able to hear the rustling rounds of moving water from the distance, just as the first rays of a beautiful golden light were beginning to filter through the tallest trees.

Instantly and before Skyle could even interject his own opinion, Leon clenched his arms around the other boy’s legs and sprinted in the direction of the sounds. Never mind the fact that Skyle almost brained himself against a couple of the low hanging branches on the way, Leon seemed to have forgotten about all else as he rushed forward with reckless abandon.

At long last, they finally found the river. It was a small stream that may have run waist-deep, about six or seven meters wide. The waters ran crystal clear, and as soon as Skyle gave the all-clear signal Leon plunged headfirst into the river, and his lordly dignity be damned.

While Skyle did share Leon’s enthusiasm, he was still wary enough that he decided to keep watch while Leon dunked himself in the water. Fortunately, no auras seemed to be nearby, and they were both able to drink their fill and rinse themselves in order to finally wash off the blood and gore caking their hair and clothes.

“Finally, I feel like a man again,” Leon sighed contentedly, having shed his shirt and wringing it vigorously between his hands.

As his powerful arms exerted their strength, Skyle was startled to see a long, white scar going down the middle of Leon’s chest, from the bottom of his neck nearly down to his navel. The scar was thick and puckered, and Skyle couldn’t help but stare as he wondered at how terrible a wound would have to be to leave such a hideous scar.

Leon caught Skyle’s look and his cheeks colored slightly as he followed the smaller boy’s gaze to his own chest, coughing uncomfortably and half-lifting the shirt as though to cover the scar.

“So.. sorry,” Skyle murmured, averting his gaze.

“No, it’s fine,” Leon sighed, shaking his head from side to side. After a short pause, he lowered the shirt and looked down at the scar, one of his hands tracing its edges. “It’s the price of trusting too much, of being too innocent in a world that won’t wait for anyone to grow up.”

Leon let out another slow breath, his massive shoulders slowly deflating as he turned around to gaze at the gentle waters of the river.

“You know Skyle, when I said all those things about those poor people trapped back there, I meant every word. Each and every single word of it. I may be the scion of one of the richest houses in the Great Duchies, but compassion and humanity are luxuries I never could afford. It’s a lesson that came at a great price, and I cannot afford to pay it again.”

Turning around, Leon’s eyes found Skyle’s gaze and held them in a moment filled with uncompromising determination.

“Do you understand?” Leon asked after a moment.

“Y..” The words died in Skyle’s mouth as he thought back on all those people being massacred at the sacrificial ritual. The weight of all those dead people instantly nullified the validity of any of his arguments. It tore all of his conviction to shreds, leaving him hollow and lost, without knowing what to say.

“Ah..” Skyle opened his mouth a couple times, but in the end he really couldn’t say anything so he finally had to lower his eyes, unable to meet the open, brutal honesty of Leon’s gaze and the iron will behind it.

Leon smiled then, though it was a smile filled with a sorrow that was too old for his young age. Then he turned around to face the river, filled with his own thoughts and not wanting to make his friend needlessly uncomfortable.

“It’s alright, Skyle. I know you don’t understand yet, and I respect you for it. In fact, I hope you never have to pay that terrible price, my friend,” Leon said in a sad voice, as though a candle were flickering out.

Skyle had to think about all the horror and death he had seen thus far. Terrible sights which he would never be able to forget as long as he lived. Still, as he gazed at Leon’s broad back, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pain inside at how cold and lonely it looked.

Just how many deaths were enough to so heavily weigh upon so young a set of shoulders? Just what kind of world was out there, beyond the confines of his happy life with his loving parents and adorable siblings? What price did Leon have to pay so early in his young life, and why would anyone place such terrible demands upon so luminous a soul?

Skyle had always considered himself intelligent and wise beyond his years. He was, after all, an expert of the hunt and the arrow, a mature boy who could distinguish between what was right and what was wrong.

Little did he know, the world he had known, the world where all his certainties lay, it was simply a castle made of sand, crumbling under the relentless assault of this grim new world. His was a world filled with absolutes, of black and white opposites neatly separated by the innocent virtue of a naive child.

This here, it was the real world, where everything lay smothered in a thick, velvety curtain of endless gray. It veritably choked the life out of dreams and hopes, spitting out acid-spitted shards of an orphaned past.

As the river flows down the mountain, and the first glimmers of early morning rises over each horizon, there lays a small child quietly huddling in his shameful ignorance, while another stands wishing in vain that he could somehow buy back such enviable innocence.

And thus the river flows on.