Surviving the Guilt - Chapter 7 and 8

Chapter 7 - Dead Soil

The group went a long way west, then they turned south and left the road, moving over dirt hills. Milton knew this type of ground. It is simply dirt, but so destroyed from hooves and fighting that no plant dared to grow on it. It looked like the plains north of Nebo Terrace. 

Everyone, including the dolyaks, got a badge, except Milton. He knew that the Lionguard wouldn’t recruit little boys, but he still felt like he would deserve one.

He also felt that his contribution made him part of the team. And as a member, he would deserve some more answers.

“Where are we delivering these stones?”

Nobody answered at first. Siany gave Marrek a little bump with her elbow. He gave in and said, “We, but not including you, are delivering them to the tengu in the Dominion of Winds.” 

That sentence hurt Milton visibly. In a depressed tone, he said, “Yes… you." 

Payton turned his head to make sure the boy was ok.

Milton tried to concentrate on the rest of the sentence. He didn’t know exactly what Tengu are, but his books made them seem like angry, big and selfish birds. But to be fair, his books rarely had anything nice written about other races.

Hurt but still determined to become a valuable member and impress Marrek, he dared to ask a second question.

"What do they want with these rocks and dolyaks you deliver?"

"No one knows for certain. But I delivered mixtures to colour stones there once. My guess is that they take this white stone and colour it for some reason. These rocks aren't particularly strong, though, so it must be something aesthetically."

Siany turned around and talked while walking backward, “I believe I know why they want dolyaks. I’ve seen a Tengu once at the Grove. He had terrible burn marks and was treated by us. His feathers wouldn’t grow on the burned skin, so a norn tailor made him a feather replacement out of doylak pelt. The tengu left as soon as he was conscious, but before, he asked the norn to show him where he could get some dolyaks to bring home... And that is the story of how I got us this assignment.” 

Payton turned around as well and silently said, “We are being watched.”

Milton looked up the hills to his right, and he began to feel sick. A centaur was standing on top of it, watching them closely. 

Even though it was quite a distance, Milton knew that a centaur could gallop to them in no time. They would stand no chance if there were more.

Marrek pushed Milton forward and said, “Turn around and make it see your badges, everyone.” They did so, and the centaur slowly changed its focus from them to something else in the distance.

Marrek sounded upset. “What are those idiot Seraph doing here?” He ran a few steps ahead. Milton followed him.

It was like Marrek said, a small troop of Seraph, probably walking to the camp at Earthworks Bluff. They seemed careless, not one had drawn his sword.

Milton looked up to Marrek and said, “We need to warn them.”

He tried to run forward, but Marrek grabbed onto his shirt.

The ground started to vibrate and before the Seraph noticed, they were surrounded by centaurs galloping around them.

“We will help them! Right?” Milton screamed.

The group of Seraph tried to take in a fighting formation. It was a futile attempt, the centaurs simply ran through them. The Seraph collapsed onto the ground. Many were knocked out - or instantly killed - because a hoof hit them right in the head.

Marrek pulled the boy closer to himself.

“We are Lionguard now. This is not our war.”

The centaur up the hill was watching them again. One wrong move and they would find themselves fighting against the centaurs.

The Seraph that survived the stampede tried to get up. Most of them were speared through their head before they were standing. These enormous beasts always had the higher ground and knew how to use it.

“But?!” Milton stuttered. “We can’t let them die!” He began to cry. “Please!” Milton fell to his knees.

The group kept moving forward. Payton picked up the crying boy and carried him until they passed the place of ambush. 

The centaurs had been quick. They must have taken the surviving Seraph captive and took the corpses to feed their dogs. There was almost no sign of a fight, except some fresh blood and a cut-off finger. Could have been human or centaur but more likely human. The Seraph already had been trampled to the ground while Milton was still watching. 

They walked a few hours in silence. Maybe because of the shame, maybe because they all were tired.

The dolyaks frequently tripped over the uneven surface. Their pace got slower and slower. They had to rest.

Chapter 8 - Forest to Kessex Haven

They came to a road. A forest was starting right on the other side. Marrek seemed upset.

“We walked in an arc. This is not where we should be right now.”

“We couldn't sleep at Kessex Haven anyway,” Peyton replied, “and I don’t think the Dolyaks will walk through the night.”

”Okay. We’ll set up camp here. But we need to have at least one person stand guard.”

The group freed the dolyaks from the cargo. They used the rocks as a makeshift wall and placed the blankets, protecting the doylaks' backs from the straps, as mattresses on the ground. They smelled of sweaty animal, but it was better than the cold ground.

Milton was allowed to help. He took some fresh leaves off the trees around and neatly placed them in a small dent in the ground. He filled it up with water so the dolyaks could drink. The two gulped it down while making cute slurping sounds that made Milton laugh.

After he was done, he went to Marrek to ask for further instructions. Maybe he could build a fireplace?

“No,” Marrek answered. “Someone could see the smoke. We shouldn’t hunt here either. We’ll eat the bread we have.”

Marrek was the first to stand guard. It was unusually cloudy, you couldn’t see the sun setting. It was getting darker with each blink of an eye.

The darker it got, the more uneasy he felt. But it wasn't just the darkness, the trees around them made slow creaking sounds which reminded him of home. But not the good memories came to his mind. Siany noticed his tension.

“Are you cold, Milton?” 

He shook his head. She waited for him to answer her.

“I… I don’t like the darkness,” Milton said with a muffled voice, “only bad things happen in the dark.”

Peyton had a smug smile on his face. “Not all things are bad in the dark.” It took Siany a few seconds until she realized what Peyton meant. She threw a little stone against his head and laughed.

There was almost no light now. The moon was completely blacked out by clouds. The three adults could barely see where the next one was sitting. Milton started to shiver, you could hear it while he was breathing.

“We should rest now,” Peyton said.

Milton heard a sword being pulled out of its sheet. He took a deep breath, ready to scream. 

But then he saw a blue light coming from Peyton's direction. 

It was his sword, it was glowing. The air that was initially meant for a scream was used for a "Whoah" instead.

“Why is it glowing?” Milton asked.

Peyton was still sitting with his back against the packaged rocks, his face and everything surrounding him tinted blue. Smiling, he said, “I was once protecting some researchers going into the catacombs near Ascalon. They couldn’t pay me what we agreed on, so I took this sword. I don’t know why it glows at night. But it always soothes me.”

Milton never heard a strong man with such a deep voice like him use the word "soothing", but he was glad about the light and Peyton.

Peyton laid the sword next to Milton, then he turned around to sleep.

Siany moved a little bit closer to Milton.

“You know, our mother always sang a song to us,” she said, “I didn't like it back then, but I'm glad I remember it.” She started to hum a beautiful melody until Milton fell asleep.

Marrek was overseeing their camp and its surroundings. He was almost falling asleep while standing. He tried to get some energy by moving around, jumping up and down. He didn't even last two hours.

He heard something rustle near the camp. He quickly moved towards it. Taking in his fighting position.

It was Peyton standing up, his sword on the ground, illuminating his face.

He whispered, “We can switch places, soon. I’ll just take a leak.”

He moved closer to Marrek. He was so tired, he swayed as if drunk.

“The boy looks up to you,” he whispered and laid his hand on Marrek’s shoulder. “We all want our heroes to teach us.” Marrek didn’t answer. Then, Peyton walked away, into the woods.

Peyton kept moving in one direction without actually seeing where he went. He was still sleepy and bumped into several trees until the clouds slowly started to break up. He could finally see further than his own feet.

He heard a twig breaking. Had he made that noise, or was something else around? He reached for his sword. The sheath was empty. 

He heard someone whisper. He looked around—he was standing in a scarcily-wooded area—and the sound of feet walking through leaves came from all around him.

Without warning, someone charged at him, he could only make out a blurry face; he instinctively smacked his head against the attacker. Laughter sounded from all angles as the attacker fell on the ground, unconscious. Peyton's head hurt and bled a little, but at least he was alive, just not alone.

He grabbed the dagger from the man lying in front of him and took in a fighting stance as if he had his sword. Again, the laughter.

"Come out, you weaklings!" Peyton grunted in his deepest and angriest voice.

And they did. Men were slowly coming out behind every second tree. They all had a smug face and played with a dagger in their hands. Peyton turned around, choosing the first one to attack. But it wasn’t him who got the first hit, someone behind him charged at him first and grazed his ribs. Peyton turned quickly and countered with his dagger. 

Another man was coming up from behind, Peyton could feel it. He struck the original backstabber down before turning and pushing the next attacker against a tree. Someone threw a dagger against him. It ripped his shirt and cut some of the skin on his breast, but the blade fell down next to him. He wanted to pick it up, but out of the dark, a hand grabbed it before he could. 

He had to orient himself again, but all he could see was trees and blurry figures rushing around.

Peyton screamed, “Marrek!”

Marrek heard Peyton’s voice in the distance. He ran to Siany, “Wake up! Bandits. Take your staff but stay with the boy!”

Marrek started to run directionless into the forest. He screamed to his friend, “KEEP TALKING, PEYTON!”

Peyton did scream after Marrek every time he had enough breath to utter a word. "MARREK!", he cried while trying to dodge another dagger. He failed, it struck him in his upper thigh. He screamed again, out of pain, "MARREK!"

Someone charged at him from the front. Their daggers slammed against each other. Both daggers were ripped out of their hands and fell to the ground. Peyton grunted like a dragon. His eyes looked mad. He pulled out the dagger in his thigh, screaming, shivering of pain. The bandit in front of him tried to back away with a frightened grimace, but Peyton had already sliced his throat. 

Marrek heard his screams and ran as fast as he could, jumping over bushes and logs. “WHERE ARE YOU, PEYTON?” He screamed and quickly turned his head in every direction. 

There was another scream in the distance. Many other voices, too.

Peyton fought another man, dagger to dagger. Peyton dodged many hits and landed a few. But he was a big man, used to fighting in sword combat and he couldn’t dodge all of the many small cuts and slices his attackers made against him from all sides. 

Peyton's shouts were getting weaker. Marrek wasn’t sure where to turn to. “Keep talking to me!” he shouted.

Blood was seeping out of the shallow cuts on Peyton's torso. He was limping, crouched, trying to stop the excessive bleeding on his upper thigh with one hand. 

A dagger rushed into his view. In a glimpse Peyton managed to grab the hand holding the blade, crushing the fingers of the attacker. The bandit fell to the ground in pain.

Peyton tried to limp away further, but he was getting weaker. His white shirt was soaking red, and he broke down on all four. 

The last thing he saw was a boot kicking his face.

Marrek arrived and found Peyton’s body lying in the leaves of the forest. He looked around but couldn’t see anybody. He kneeled to check Peyton’s pulse. There was none, Peyton was dead.

It was silent, there were only the wind and the creaking trees.

Marrek searched Peyton’s body, but the had bandits already looted whatever he carried, including his boots. His torn clothes told how he died. 

Marrek went back to the camp. Not running but at a steady pace.

As he arrived at the camp, he saw Siany with her staff and Milton next to her, with Peyton's glowing sword in his hands.

Marrek sounded angry, “Did they come for you?”

“No,” Siany said in her calm voice, “I heard some footsteps, but they must have gone when they saw that we only transported rocks.”

”Good. Let’s get the Doylaks ready before they change their minds. We will move as soon as we can... Milton!” He pointed his sword towards the boy, “You will never let go of that sword! Do you understand?” Milton nodded. 

The three loaded the rocks onto the doylaks. The animals seemed somewhat confused as to why they were woken up, but they walked.