Chapter Six: Presence, Friend / Foe or a Mistake?

No dreams.

No nothing.

Just a comforting heat on her back and a dull pain on her arm.

The foul smell of sweat and dirt couldn’t dissuade her from waking.

But… one person would.

“Wayne… it’s time we get moving.”

Shadow’s voice was soft but tired, spent as much as Waynev was from yesterday’s near death experience.

“Don’t comfort me. I’m not broken.” Waynev’s words were sharp but her tone was drained as she wiggled her body deeper into the covers.

“Yesterday was…” The words were there, just like the magic was.

Both were in sight but neither were easy to reach.

“We were the stray,”

A pause.

“barely able to escape the old wolf’s buffet,”

A hint of humor, with something else, something more.

“But today, from this day onwards we won’t be the prey.”

Her words poetic and aims magnetic, Waynev couldn’t help but agree.

But just agreeing wasn’t enough.

Silence reigned but with it Shadow’s words watered the seeds that Vein had planted.

In her fluffy… hidey bed, she was hidden.

She was safe.

It was early evening when she slept and the early rays told her what the day was expecting from her.

But they could wait.

Snuggling under the covers for so long, the overeager stench began to grow familiar.

Immersing herself in dreams, they weren’t clouds but movies and books.

Where Shadow read, Waynev enjoyed watching movies. They helped numb the trauma and remind her things could be worse, she wasn’t surrounded by zombies or defusing bombs that could blow the world to pieces.

Instead she was fighting for her sister… and herself.

Her parents hadn’t been there for her when she was young, and even in her teenage years they were busy with work or wanting to explore and go on little adventures or vacations…

That typically was meant only for them.

When Waynev was younger, only just entering middle school she always assumed that in her teenage years, her parents would bring Elise and Waynev on their spontaneous adventures and holidays that were spoken at length as ‘breathtaking’ and ‘amazing’.

Elise and Waynev used to imagine themselves in the adventures when they were left with their caretakers.

Elise was always imagining exploring the world together, going to places like Paris and France, places that Waynev thought were cliche for a teenager but was happy that Elise was normal compared to herself.

The only places she wanted to go, she wanted to go alone.

Well, alone with Elise…

Elise… would be alone now that Waynev was gone.

Would she ever escape Shadow?

Years of ignoring the voice, the shadow of her own, would she be here forever?

Burying her head in the pillow, she slowly started moving her legs and arms squirming in her little paradise and then she knew.

“Dammit.” Her voice muffled into the pillow.

Quest:

Meet the inhabitants on Temporous.

Meet up to one friendly inhabitant of Temporous. Meet up to one hostile inhabitant of Temporous.

Consequence:

One of your forearms will be taken.

Time Limit:

0 days, Nineteen hours, 42 minutes remaining.

Face lifting from the screen, abdominals feeling taut as she pushed her arms against the bed and swung her feet out of bed, the sheets and animal skinned blankets falling alongside them.

Standing, her head down, she slowly began kicking her way out of the bedsheets and towards the door, a relieved sigh could be heard in her ear.

“Wayne-” Shadow began her voice sounding grateful, was interrupted almost immediately.

“I really couldn’t do it to her.”

Droplets much smaller and more numerous than the one Vein gave fell.

The only comfort she would receive, her arm wiping away the droplets helped stop the flow.

But the emotions didn’t stop flowing even as she walked through the still-open door.

Past the fly-addled corpse, and towards the near empty bucket.

It was half an hour later, after Waynev had eaten the last of her supplies.

She found a waterskin lazing on the ground near the staircase which Shadow speculated fell off the old man after his multiple tumbles down the bloodied stairs.

Finding old cloth that was semi-clean, she removed the bandages and used the remaining water to clean the wound, which had been healing pretty well considering the cleaver nearly cut to the bone.

Finishing up her cautice Waynev sat down on one of the chairs that she formerly shoved away while trying to find a weapon to mend the old wolf dead.

“I can’t let Elise into this world.” Waynev finally spoke, her voice neutral, calmed.

“Shadow, from this point on… I think we're going to be killing a lot more-'' Her eyes wandered through the trash pile she created as she searched for the words.

“-things, monsters… maybe even people.” Her voice did not falter despite the earlier emotional outburst.

“I’m not going to be weak again,”

“I’m not going to let things go to such a point where I can’t fix the problem,”

Waynev’s back began to straighten despite the tough floor doing her bum no favours.

“Instead of being reactive I’m going to adapt.”

“Status”

Current Status:

Agility:

1.20 → 1.35AH

Strength:

0.85 → 1AH

Vitality:

1 → 1.2AH

Wisdom:

1.5 → 1.65AH

Mana:

(Locked)

The bulkiest improvement so far.

Impressive.

“I need information, I need supplies and I need to make sure I’m prepared for this emotionally as well. Rest days are fine, but in this situation they need to be put off.”

“At least until I’m strong enough.”

“I agree with everything except one thing” Shadow interrupted.

“I suggest you don’t put off your emotions. Handle them when they’re coming, prepare to kill, prepare to lose, prepare to be saddened or happy. I- No we don’t know what the future holds.”

“Getting emotional doesn’t help, getting focused does.”

“Are you capable?” Despite Shadow speaking at length, the second she asked Waynev the reply was instantaneous.

“I am.” Prepared.

“Can we stop the inevitable, the event that the gods think will end Temporous?”

“I know we can.” Determined.

“Can we grow stronger, fiercer, faster than we ever knew to save her?”

“We can, we will AND in the future we will have done.” Ready.

“I’m ready, let's scrap this dump and stop the inevitable!” Waynev bellowed, empowered with emotion she began the long arduous task with a sense of purpose.

Both Shadow and Waynev giggled as she began scavenging the house for supplies, preparing for the next time conflict’s sprung on them and thinking through her emotions now.

Rather than when they would damage her, such as in a battle or during an important meeting or exchange.

“Huh.”

Starting at the cupboards Waynev found the little jars and cups she went through in a rush.

They were all filled with strange substances. Some moving, others rotting. But the majority of them were near-empty.

“Waynev, how do you think the old wolf managed to… ensnare that many people?” Shadow called the murderer ‘old wolf’ because of his snarl and wrinkled smile, the nickname was accurate.

“He didn’t have any magic, at least none that I could sense like Vein’s. Hmm…” Shadow’s monologue did hint at something, the jars probably had more than met the eye.

Waynev thought about it, as she sorted past the jars, finding old torn clothes and some cute linen pants with a stain on them. Thinking back on where the old wolf found her, she too found the answer with a gasp.

“He knew we found the bodies.”

“Oh.”

“The other travellers must’ve never found the bodies. I bet that looking like a kind old man, with a toned down smile could probably fool most- no all who were as tired as we were.”

Shadow’s exclamation made sense but Waynev felt as if there was a piece missing.

“Do you think the jars were poisoned?” Waynev, who was forearms deep in old crap, pulled back and looked at the jars aligned across the floor.

Looking closely the insides were food covered in grey mold or grubier than the ground was.

“I bet he didn’t even need to find a poison.” Intuition paving the way to the solution.

“All he had to do was give them food poisoning, smearing their food with any of this,”

“Bleeeh.” Waynev stuck her tongue out disgusted and shoved the glass jars back with the side of her foot.

Some falling over and adding to the toxic smell the house now sported.

“Hmm, some of these could be useful.” Shadow eyed some of the more colourful containers.

“But… we have no idea what’s decomposing food and what’s some rare species of ground up plant. They look the same after spending that long in the jars…”

“Wooow. What a shame. Having to leave behind mouldy food and plants. What has the world turned to?'' A grin and sarcastic tone speaking of how far Waynev’s recovered from the recent attack.

Searching through the bottom floor, Waynev found a leather corset and decided to put her current torn shirt under it, to act as a barrier between the uncomfortable feeling of old leather.

Putting on the linen pants, Waynev was happy to find that the only hole was near the bottom left leg of the pants. A very obvious bite mark with a bit of blood surrounding it, Waynev didn’t have to guess hard to discover what happened to the last owner of the cute pants.

She also found a small purple pearl inside one of the pockets, it was small and forgettable so she just put it back, perhaps something to sell?

She continued for another 10 minutes before all the crap inside the cabinets was now sprawling across the floor.

The travelling duo decided it was time to steal the bed covers and look for any hidden caches before burning the house down.

Walking up the stairs Waynev’s spilt blood was still a bit sticky in some places she thought before a familiar shine of white appeared near the top of the stairs.

Her one knuckle, when she let go of the dagger they must’ve fallen off somehow.

Picking them up the previous white knuckles were now covered in blood between the handles and the small white spikes now painted in a mixture of red and gore.

Wiping off the grime and gore off the knuckles as she sat down on a cleanish part on one of the stairs.

Waynev started to examine the weapon that had saved her life, the material she couldn’t place before was…

Bone.

She nearly dropped the knuckles as both her hands and eyebrows shot up in surprise, nearly losing her balance on the stairs she spread her legs out, her feet feeling a little wet.

Waynev winced.

Another thing to add to her scavenging list.

Cleaning the knuckle Waynev slipped it on, her hand enjoyed the feeling of being armed, granting the ability of a quick riposte or attack.

About to stand Waynev looked across the stair underneath the one she was sitting on and saw it.

The dagger, clearly covered in dried blood. Reaching out to grab it, Shadow stopped her.

“Waynev I’m pretty sure that dagger’s blunter than I am, it's going to be deadweight.” She deadpanned, the feeling Waynev got from Shadow was also completely serious.

Considering her options between a blunt dagger that would weigh down her already heavy pack or knuckles that she could wear on her fists as she walked. Waynev hesitantly agreed with Shadow, finding it hard to believe that a dagger would be better than a fist but…

“Having a weapon that can be easily overlooked like the knuckles is perfect for us, a punch at an unsuspecting attacker would be better than trying to stab an attacker looking for a knife.”

“Maybe.” Waynev followed her advice.

As she continued the ascent to softer nights and warmer feet.

“Phew~” Her body tinged with a layer of sweat, gleamed off her newfound muscles.

Appreciated like a man getting a genuine compliment, Waynev was in a good mood.

“Morning exercises were worth it hmm?” Came Shadow’s teasing voice in her ear, causing Waynev to look away, her already red cheeks forming a blush.

The cool wind gently came her way, giving the smell of fresh soil and leaves, her body’s sweat disappeared with it’s gentle caress.

A few minutes were worth it, despite the quest looming above them.

A few minutes to make your body move faster was an investment worth every second.

“I thought after the fight I wouldn’t be able to move my arm at all, especially since I didn’t clean it well or bandage it with sterilised cloth, but-”

Giggling came in her ear a child in temperament at times “But what? Be happy and grateful that this world lets us upgrade ourselves!”.

“Our vitality stat definitely helped. AND so did the exercises, if only in spirit.” Waynev’s wounds and emotions weren’t unnoticed.

Her daily exercises began from jumping jacks and simple rolls before slowly progressing into push-ups, crunches and a small run around the back of the shack.

Where she could avoid the ever present smell of the corpse and have a large open area to experiment with her body.

She also practiced punches, using her entire body to lead the punch.

Her hips swinging slightly and her back and abdominals helping the pushing power.

Speed was the current objective, and it was her best ‘stat’ in Shadow’s opinion…

After training Waynev had to admit it was as well.

Her strength stat without time and without loads of food the goal would be unattainable for now… also as long as she wanted to keep her figure, strength would be her weakest stat.

Walking to the cottage’s entrance, she promptly ignored the blank stare of the old wolf, even tempted to give him a last slap. Before she noticed that the thousands of wooden splinters in his body would have made his last moments more hellish than he killed his prey.

Looking back one last time Waynev pivoted with the shut of the door, her new footwear saving her callused feet from what would’ve been another day of trying to ignore the bruises.

Bringing out the flint and tinder she lit the seeming small patch of twigs and watched the sunrise next to the rise of a newly made sun.

One that was beginning to grow in size and ferocity, the stench of burnt flesh, exploding glass and wood creaking was worth gathering the twigs and leaves scattered around.

Walking over to the smokehouse, just a husk was left. Waynev had burned it yesterday, the butchered bodies resting, fertilising the ground and hopefully putting their owners to rest.

Smiling Waynev stopped a few embers from helping the forest join in on the fun and the minutes nearly turned to hours before the small shack was burnt down.

“Explosive event hmm?” Shadow’s tone inciting and a smirk and small happy sigh from Waynev.

With a miniscule shake of her head, Waynev began jogging back to the river.

Her bucket holding a day's worth of roots she found nearby, either onions or beets, honestly Waynev didn’t care.

At the very least she was sleeping on a soft blanket and had enough supplies that she didn’t have to worry.

When it came to supplies, the woods on the other hand…

Beginning the walk, the figure in the river looked clean and rejuvenated.

But most importantly determined.

Ready.