Burning Today Options

[Olen]

Some of you probably remember my last piece, Yesterday's Shadow and that it had a rather unsatisfying ending. I spent the summer rectifying this and now have a sizeable sequel/ completion to it which is itself now finished. It would probably be better to read Yesterday's Shadow before this as it would make more sense, however you should get by without it. If anyone wants I'll put a synopsis here, though Yesterday's Shadow isn't very long so you could just read it here (enough plugs yet?)

Anyway without further ado:

Burning Today

Prologue

Dervas wore boots while he worked. Shoes didn't last long in the decaying mixture of blood, vomit, drink and drugs which floored The Black Guar. The dark man had finally passed out and for the first time Dervas dared look at him. A worn man with a broken soul. Who are you? The Black Guar didn't get passing trade – the mixture of pushers, heavies and racketeers who made up most of his patronage didn't appreciate strangers. In the first hour the man, who now lay face down on the table, had knocked two out cold and broken another's arm. They left him alone after that and he them. Dervas wiped the remains of a line of sugar off the bar and nodded to the bouncer who went to move the man to his room.

Someone knocked at the door. Dervas ignored it. They knocked again, for longer this time. He cursed and went to tell whoever it was where to go. It was late an he didn't need any more trade. He pushed open the door, a curse dancing on his tongue. A sack crashed to the ground, gold clinked within. A Breton in black clothes stood in the doorway.

“What's his tab?” There was no need to ask whose.

“Sixty.”

The Breton showed no surprise, and counted out the gold. “Listen,” his tone offered pain if Dervas didn't, “You keep giving that guy drinks, drugs, whores, whatever he asks for okay? For him happy hour doesn't end, tabs never have to be paid. Push as much as you can into him. Don't worry - I'll be round a couple of nights a week to pay you. That sack,” he kicked disdainfully at the one he'd just dropped, “Contains a thousand drakes, payment enough I'd say. If he asks don't tell him, just give him more drink. Understand?”

Dervas nodded, his mouth was dry.

The man disappeared into the night.

Dervas walked back into the bar. He looked towards the dark man's room. Who are you? he thought again, And what have I gotten into?

[Olen]

Thanks for the comments, I've taken a lot more time checking through this one. The second half of the story (from about the last part) was written in about ten days so is rather more error filled but I think I've caught them all. As ever it's my reliance on spellcheck haunting me because my spelling is dreadful.

Thanks for all the positive feedback, it's good to know this is enjoyed.

mALX's comment does raise a question for me - would I be better including the cresendo/ cliffhanger in a single part and making the cut after it's resolved sometimes?

This part is longer but I'd go as far as to say I'm pleased with it


32. Just Luck

Chaos reigned. We were spread in a line for walking not fighting. But so were our opponents. I think they must have been making camp for they were in no way ready. There was no time for tactics. I saw the dreugh shield and ran for it. Loghash was the leader. He was also good and I was our best. He charged when he saw me. Our eyes met but there was no camaraderie, no mutual respect. I saw hatred and burning madness in him and felt disgust that I had ever worked for the Guild.

At the final second I danced aside behind a tree. Bark flew as his wild swing met wood. I stepped behind him and slashed at his side. The tip of the blade met skin before it was turned aside by the hard shell of the shield. He was tough and the wound didn't even slow him. I sidestepped an obvious feint of his axe. I could see it was meant to direct me into a swing of the shield even before it moved and capitalised on the gap in his defence. His armour turned my sword but I severed a strap and it fell open on his right. We drew apart. A scream cut the forest. Neither of us was stupid enough to give it heed. I had never trained with him but already I knew his tactic. It was typically orcish: he knew he was tougher than almost anything else and he played to that. In a simple slogging match I would lose, and that was exactly what he was turning it into. I darted forward and parried a swing before drawing back. His loose armour was the key but it was behind a wickedly sharp glass axe. I fell back a little under a branch of an old pine. He followed, keeping to my left. I glanced pointedly over his head.

"Okun," I shouted. He wasn't there but I wanted him close.

Loghash had no choice. I didn't doubt that he knew there would be no one behind him, but who would risk it? He stepped right, exactly where I needed him and glanced back.

"Made you look greeny," I said in the most annoying voice I could muster. He howled and charged. I bent the branch down and his face met a cloud of pine needles. His roar was cut short as I pushed my sword though the gap in his armour. It wasn't noble, but fair fights are for idiots, and the dead.

I took a deep breath but there was no rest, I turned and ran for the nearest sounds. Grey-tail was fighting a massive nord who wielded a warhammer. The argonian was being pressed hard. I ran to aid him but before I got there he made a maddened series of lunges with his spear. Perhaps he'd realised he couldn't win and hoped to get lucky, perhaps it was just lack of knowledge. It left him too open though. The hammer made a sickening noise as it lifted him from the ground. The nord lifted it for a killing blow. I called a battle-cry. He swung bringing the hammer round to meet my lunge. The shock of it left my hand ringing. I backed a short way and he followed making tentative swings, testing my strength and reflexes. Then I saw Okun through the trees running towards us. I cursed. Two on one would be useful but the nord had skill, and enough sense to use more than brute force.

His eyes widened as I attacked. I offered no warning: just a sudden switch from backing away to as rapid a series of thrusts, lunges, slashes and parries as I could muster. Some were a little clumsy but anything they may have lacked in finesse or power was made up in speed. Even with simple blocks I could see the nord struggled with his heavy weapon. I had his full attention. After a few moments the nord stopped trying to counterattack and settled for just defending, no doubt content that I would tire soon. He was right, my arms already burned with the exertion. Okun was almost on him when he smelt the trap and tried to back away. I redoubled my efforts but must have given away where Okun was as the nord started to turn us. I tried to prevent it but couldn't do it without giving him an instant to look at anything but my sword.

He gave a sudden parry to try to break free. I attempted a counter parry. It was like flicking a tree trunk and knocked my grip squint. The stupidity of the technique obviously confused the nord though, and I managed to slip right in close to him. His pauldron turned a downward stroke and my already compromised grip broke and my sword fell. I grabbed one arm under his oxter and the other over his shoulder an tried to grapple him. I tucked my head in close where he couldn't hit. I and smelt the stale beer-sweat which poured from him. I tried to trip him backwards but might as well have wrestled a bear, he tried bringing the handle of the hammer down on my back but couldn't get the force to do more than bruise me. I sunk my teeth into any flesh I could find desperate to hold on, to keep him distracted. The rank salt taste of unwashed flesh filled my mouth then I was rewarded with a tang of blood. I brought my knee into his groin but found only armour. He dropped that hammer and tried to crush me with his vast strength while I tried to drive my shoulder into his throat and rake his eyes. He coughed phlegm down the side of my face. Stars danced in my vision, I craned my neck trying to bite his throat. Sweat soaked us like a mattress in a brothel. Then suddenly he stiffened and his grip lessened. Warm dampness soaked me down my right side. I felt another blow through him and he fell back from me.

Okun stood there hacking the spear into him and dragging it out like a farmer breaking hard earth. The armour had given way and the flesh beneath looked more akin to cheap sausage than the mountain of muscle I'd been near crushed by. I backed away gasping fresh air. I was covered in blood, mainly his, though I bore a few cuts and a nose which felt like it had a new kink. I shook my head clear and glanced round.

I grabbed my sword and said "Where's the rest of them?"

Okun, now kneeling by Grey-tail, inclined his head to listen, "Sounds like it's over. Keel-ha shot an orc before..." a groan from Grey-tail broke the pause, "He lives!" Okun sounded shocked, "Are you a healer?"

I went over and pulled out my belt knife to cut away the straps of Grey-tail's armour. He groaned and muttered something unintelligible. Gingerly I pulled back the front of his cuirass. It wasn't pretty, his chest wasn't the shape it should have been. The hammer blow had broken several ribs, one even poked through the skin. How many more went in to poke through other things I couldn't tell. Just then he retched and vomited. There was fresh blood in it.

"I can patch up basic things but this needs magic. Tehei is pretty good get her," I paused then in argonian shouted, "Tehei, Grey-tail needs you."

"She's dead," said Okun.

I groaned. It meant one thing. "So then, I fear, is Grey-tail." I sat back and looked at the sky. Morning shone down brightly now, the red fallen from the growing day to stain the ground below.

"Keel-ha..." said Okun then stopped.

"What."

"Him... Him too. He went in too fast... There were two of them, we couldn't reach him."

Emptiness. I think only then did I realise how much I liked the argonians. They were a little unbalanced, yes, but they were a thousand times more comradely than the guild had been. There were principals here, not just cash. I lay back and stared blindly at nothing. Was I to blame? Grey-tail was the leader. But it was I who had led them here, who had pushed southward rather than trying to find another way out. And what of the dead Guild members. Some of them might have had families, or at least someone relying on them. More added to the tally. Vaguely I wondered when I had started caring. Maybe always but I never remember regretting much in the past. Now all I wanted was to give up, to be free from the walls of duty and addiction which herded me onward. Another groan from Grey-tail roused me but there was nothing I could do. If I had a potion maybe but I'd never carried them. They encouraged carelessness and ate into profits. How bitter that sentiment seemed now. My failure, others' suffering. I seemed to have a knack for avoiding that, a hard vein of self-interest which let others fall. Or perhaps it was just luck, what more could be done?

In hindsight? Everything.

A branch breaking made me turn. Hassde limped over and crashed down next to me. "He conscious?"

"Almost, you okay?"

"Yes, you know much about patching wounds?"

For a moment I thought he meant Grey-tail but then I saw that he was proffering an arm. A deep gouge ran along it but the blade which had done it had lacked the weight to do massive damage.

"You should be glad the blade was light," I said, "Yes I can stitch simple things, though I've never tried argonian skin. The fighter's guild will have some spirit with them, it cleanses wounds well enough."

"Good, the cut got my side where the armour's thin and my leg as well. He was fast. When you're stitching push the needle though the scales, the stitches hold better and are less uncomfortable in the long run that way. I think Tehei had a needle in her bag."

I got up without a word and walked through the trees to where the other fights had taken place. A gentle wind rustled the leaves. First I came to a pack I didn't recognise, inside there was indeed some mazte. I took it but found no potions and nothing else interested me. What use is money? The sound of harsh sobbing came from my right. Keel-ha lay by the roots of a tree, Hides knelt by him. Blood covered her. I approached quietly and stood for a moment. I would have liked longer but the need of the living is more urgent than that of the dead.

"Are you hurt?" I asked Hides.

"Not physically, not badly... Why did he run on? Why was I so distant? Only now I can't have him do I realise that I did like him, that we could have been..." another set of sobs broke her off. I let my gaze rest on his corpse for a moment but could not bring myself to pray. What god would listen to me? None I would want to commend him to.

Near him the body of Tehei was also laid out, I supposed Hides had tried to stay busy. Her bag was beside her, I took it and after a moment to respect the dead hurried back to Hassde. He'd managed to three quarters struggle out of his armour and was looking at a series of long, but blessedly shallow gashes across his side. "Cut me up a bit didn't he?"

I nodded but couldn't manage to be light so sat in silence and stitched and thought.

I was halfway done when Hassde said, "Has anyone seen Kieras?"

No one had, "I'll go and look," said Okun, "Try to stop Grey-tail choking on his blood." As he stood I saw blood ran from his tail.

"You're wounded,"

"I've had a lot worse."

"Still worth stitching."

"Maybe later. What's it going to save?" his tone was black, "My tail's beauty?"

Okun returned with Hides shortly after I'd finished tending to Hassde. "Kieras?"

"Dead. Any change in Grey-tail?"

"He coughs more, and there's more blood. Where's the nearest healer?"

"None would touch him."

"I could buy a potion," I said.

"It's half a day to the nearest town. He'll die if we move him so a day there and back. He won't last that long, even now I doubt potions would be enough." Hassde was right.

"Then we are four," said Hides, "Tehei had a potion that ends pain. To drink it is death, but a better death. Sometimes it can even wake the almost dead, if briefly."

"Aye," said Hassde.

I looked at Grey-tail. Where was his mind now? Would we drag him from his final peace or revive him from the darkest pit? I left such to the philosophers, in the situation I know what I'd want. "Aye."

"Aye," said Okun.

Hides raked through the bag and pulled out a small vial. Her hand trembled as she broke the seal and poured it between Grey-tail's blood flecked lips. We sat in silence while it acted.

A few moments passed then Grey-tail stirred and looked at us with eye freed from the clamours of pain. Then he coughed and looked at the phlegm, "It was mortal then," he said and sighed, "Very well." How does one talk to someone who will die in mere minutes? What do you speak of? Love lost and morbid death already lay like a smothering blanket but the gravity of the moment crushed light words. Grey-tail answered the question, "Where ever you go now you go without me. But I should like to know where that will be."

Another silence. Okun looked to me. Hassde stared into the distance. Hides looked lost. We could escape. The way west was open, maybe. A few days could see us into the swamp, or at the western border. But that option had been open before, to take it was defeat. And I had my goal. So it was both for Varnan and for the dead that I spoke, "We must strike Tear."

Hassde looked at me as if I were mad, "With four of us, and two injured. Impossible. Suicide even."

"What else is there? Slink away to new lives elsewhere and know forever that we failed, that the audacity of our plans frightened us at the last and the dead died for nothing? Remember the Edril Plantation, at very least we shall strike vengeance and fear."

"To go to Tear," croaked Grey-tail, "Is to go to your deaths. But it was always likely to end that way. Now you've seen death a little closer you may reconsider. I always wanted to see the swamps again..."

"Put it to vote," said Hassde.

"No," I replied, "I will not have democracy. We need a single firm leader who will decide our path. What would you advise?" I addressed the final bit to Grey-tail.

"I know not. Is death so bad? Now it is so close I am nervous but also intrigued. There is no use worrying. In memory you could live forever. But in the flesh Tear is death. Much death, but to an end."

I stood, "I go to Tear, to finish what I began and in honour of the dead."

"I go with you," said Okun. I frowned. It pained me that he would follow my lead even to his death. Could I accept that? Yes, I did not intend to die in Tear, it was merely a possibility. The same chance of life existed for him. Perhaps.

"I to go to Tear, though I shall not return. With my name so to will live Keel-ha. Forever in our legends," Hides said.

"Then I follow," said Hassde, "And hope you plan is a good one."

Grey-tail grinned, "This is a strange day, a man as leader of the Argonian Defence Front. Intent on striking Tear. I would wish you better fortune than I lead us to but it would be ill said so I say this only: good luck." I nodded and for a few moments we sat in silence. The argonian's breathing became ragged then began to falter, "This is it," he gasped, "I wonder-"

He gave two shallow breaths then breathed no more. We were four, and our mission madness.

This post has been edited by Olen: Apr 18 2010, 09:56 AM