[Previously: Despite his anxious energy he had a calming effect over Sarah no matter how unhealthy their habits were he'd just ask if he could help and then ignore it if not. His obviously faked but yet still some type of disinterest really began to make the hardest things easier.
They mess with the knife they kept on them at all times. But not everything was easier. They really needed to get the truth off their chest but what if it ruined everything?]
The argument wasn’t going anywhere and eventually the spy, chief and Ray had come to a tense agreement that before anyone was banished they’d give time for Ray’s memories to come back or at least let San try to defend themselves.
But San was missing and with the chief out looking for him the spy is now awkwardly babysitting Ray and Kal.
The only thing is, Kal…something had made the spy tense up only for a quick rush of German to go between both of them and now neither of them wanted to speak.
“Are you okay? I heard you got poisoned.” Kal finally says to me breaking the horrible tension making me feel sick.
I think about the weird fruit and mushrooms I ate, it feels forever ago now.
“I barely remember it, the troll guarding the door, he saved my life but was replaced?” There’s silence for a second where I hear the trolls breathing.
“He was sent to the stocks.” Kal informs.
“Do you have any idea how long he’s been in there?” I ask mostly aimed towards the spy.
“He won’t be released until after you go to him and-.” Kal says slowly and carefully.
“Then let's go,” I exclaim, “What are we waiting for.”
“It’s not that easy.” Kal rushes, “It’s a thing of pride for guards. He broke the rules to save you; he won't be convinced to leave so easily.”
I blink in shock and then wonder why in the world he needs convincing to be released.
Thankfully Kal continues the explanation, “The longer you stay the more innocent you are, since his intentions were pure he probably won’t leave early unless you beg him.”
I shake my head in disbelief, “Okay.”
“You will need to bring food and water as well. It will look good if you bathe him later as well.” Kal sounds like he already expects me to decline.
I touch my ankle thoughtfully it’s finally healed and then ask, “Can you hand me my walking stick?”
“No.” The spy grumbles at the same time as Kal.
“No.” The spy says deadpan again, “You can’t walk alone yet. I’ll make sure he gets taken care of until you get better.”
I go quiet from the guilt thinking about it. “I honestly appreciate it.” I murmur finally.
The spy goes back to being silent. I'm sure he’s staring down Kal worried that he and San had something planned this whole time.
“So how’s San?” Kal asks. He makes a worried noise when both I and the spy tense up.
“We were hoping you would know.” The spy says slowly as though giving himself plenty of time to watch Kal’s reaction to his words. “Especially after he attacked Ray.”
I whip my head around, “Really?! I already told you it was not San!”
“It doesn’t look good with San having run away.”
Kris stands and for a second I’m really unsure if he is going to blame me for all this, he barely knows me and his loyalty to San is nothing to sneeze at.
“What did that idiot do now?!” He exclaims immediately, making the spy lose whatever suspicions he had, “My parents haven’t let me see him since…you know.” His voice breaks a little and I have a feeling I’m not being let in on something. “Are you telling me he’s decided to go to the surface?!”
The spy steps forwards putting a hand on his shoulder, “Relax a little bit let me get you caught up.”
“Attacking Ray to get defanged and dehorned so he can go to the surface?” Kal repeats in that deadpan voice he snorts. “You obviously don’t know him that well.” Kal bumps me gently, “He was willing to get hurt over protecting the human, why would he suddenly turn around and almost kill him.”
He turns to me with so much intensity in his voice, “Isn’t there anyone else you suspect?”
“Yeah,” I croak, I turn my head a little to look up at the spy, “But with how serious the punishment is I don’t want to go around throwing accusations especially since I don’t remember anything yet.”
“What is this, I thought I said no visitors Kal.” The coldest voice I’ve ever heard makes me go to stand. The spy puts his hand on my shoulder for a brief second but it’s a firm unspoken, stay seated and stay silent.
“Morion.” The spy says slowly, voice oozing with hatred and contempt. “I see you’ve taken the law into your own hands.”
“It’s my household.”
“He’s a child.” The spy spits stepping forward and from where the voices are coming from Morion is much taller than the spy. To my surprise Kal has unknowingly pressed against me, mostly to shrink away from his father. I confusedly put my arm on him as I feel his racing heart.
“Stop.” He protests so quietly I know neither of the trolls heard him.
“My child, and if the chief wasn’t such a coward he would have punished both of them properly and killed that disgusting human so I didn’t have to!”
The spy must have lunged forward to protect me because I hear the crack of stone striking stone and the scuffle of two huge trolls right in front of me.
Kal pins me, holding me tightly in terror at the scene unfolding in front of him unable to move.
“Kal! Kal listen to me, we need to move!” I exclaim but there’s no getting through to him he’s petrified. I try to pull myself away because honestly the sound of violence is getting closer and by the sounds of the spy’s wheezes he’s severely outmatched and losing ground quickly.
“Kal you idiot run!” The spy snarls, snapping him out of it. I feel the weight lift off of me as the spy opens himself up to a few strikes as he yanks Kal off of me, throwing him towards the door.
And then suddenly Kal is yanking me out of the tent and we are running away from what I realize horrified is an enraged troll behind us.
My heart is in my throat as Kal mercilessly drags my half running, half falling body behind him. I didn’t know trolls could sprint. I feel the bruise forming where he’s clenching my wrist. It makes me wonder if in his state of panic he thinks I’m San. Still it’s obvious that he knows exactly where he is going. I close my eyes pushing through the pain and focus on taking deep gasps that my unexercised lungs desperately needed.
Kal rounds a corner tightly and then shoves me into the tight fissure in the cave wall first. I feel my adrenaline kick in as tight walls press in on me and force myself to continue deeper and deeper until there’s no more room. Kal is going to need all the space I could spare to squeeze in behind me. I wait and then as the roar of blood calms a little I realize he’s already gone.
His father is still chasing him but now I’m out of danger.
I strain my ears as I catch my breath, the feeling of not being able to get a full breath is fine, because I’m safe. But Kal? What about the spy? Is he going to be okay? Those strikes sounded devastating, like rock was breaking off with each one. And what did they mean by taking the law into their own hands? What happened to Kal?!
I stay still until the adrenaline fades, it’s silent. I move around trying to tell how big the fissure is exactly, only enough to stand up in. I wonder how long I should stay here. I know that if I leave I could be seen and attacked by the troll and maybe others who might feel the same way towards humans as Morion.
“There you are.”
I flinch as I hear his voice as though thinking about him made him appear. There’s a scuffling sound and I push away hoping I was deep enough not to be grabbed. I push out as much air in my lungs as I can and give myself another inch. Uncomfortably tight but that’s better than having all my bones crushed to dust. Then a whimper and I realized he wasn’t talking to me at all but to Kal.
I instinctively feel my hand go to my pocket where if I was wearing jeans I’d have my knife. Neither of which I had.
“I knew you’d come back to get your little human friend.” He sneers. There’s a snap and a cry of pain. “Hear that human?! I know you’re in there, so come out and I’ll be merciful to my son.” I flinch as I hear another cry of pain and soft cursing, “If you don’t I’ll keep breaking his fingers until you do.”
I want to scream at him but I’d have to un-wedge myself first. I start shifting trying to move towards the entrance.
“Don’t do it Ray, he's just going to do it after he’s done killing you.” Kal’s voice sounds so hollow and empty. How long has this been going on?!
“Well you see now that you say that I’m tempted to break your other horn off.”
I freeze, realizing now what the spy saw the second he entered the tent.
I try to block out the horrible troll but he keeps goading about it in gory detail. Mocking his son for feeling devastation of having an important body part removed and feeling pain. Finally I un-wedge myself and take a deep breath.
“You monster, he's your son!”
“He’s a disappointment he is,” the troll sighs, dropping Kal to the ground, “I can just make another.”
Kal whispers, “Fuck you.” And all the sudden something very big and very deadly by the sounds of the trolls screams, attacks. I feel a hand reach in and I flinch, “It’s me.” Kal whispers. “Hurry or we’re both dead.”
Kal’s dad keeps screaming and cursing as Kal drags me albeit slower then I would have liked behind him. He’s obviously in a lot of pain and I don’t want to know exactly how bad it is. The scene behind us is pretty bad as well. Something is making, very painful and very quick work of that troll. This would be a bad time for my vision to suddenly come back.
Kal’s breathing is steady but pained, “I can’t.” He says suddenly collapsing, “I can’t move any further.” I crouch in front of him but he pushes me. “We’re in it’s den you have to leave.”
“To get help?” I feel my hands shaking.
His silence doesn’t reassure me. “I just killed my dad.” His voice breaks.
“No, no that thing did you-”
“I planned this Ray.” He snaps, “I planned on bringing him here ever since he first laid hands on me.” He looks back the way we came, “It’s already finished, it's going to get me next you need to go.”
“You’re crazy,” I whisper. “I am not leaving you to die.”
He shrugs, “I just murdered my own father. If I didn’t get killed by that Saber then the tribe would do worse.”
“Saber.” I say, “You don’t mean a saber toothed tiger do you?”
He laughs, “Maybe I have no idea what a tiger is.”
I feel helpless and then sit down next to him shaking and close to tears. “There’s no way I can get back on my own.” I explain, “Even if I run it’ll probably get me next.”
“Are you just trying to get me to go with you?” He asks quietly.
I hold out my shaking hands, “Partially but I’m also terrified.”
He silently painfully gets up and picks up something nearby. “Here, it’s a spear.” I can’t tell you how amazing it was to hold a cane like object in my hands again.
“No like this,” he aims it up and not touching the floor anymore.
I hear him grab one as well.
“We aren’t going to be able to fight it, this is just for defense as we back out of its den. We don’t want it getting anywhere near us so make sure to hold out the spear as soon as I say so. And hold on tight.” I can hear the resignation in his voice. He's not convinced this will work at all.
He touches my tunic, surprising me.
“What?” I ask.
“I’m just…sorry.” He thinks he’s killed me.
He sucks a sharp breath through his teeth pulling me beside him, “Spear up.” I strain my ears and eyes backing up with him matching him step by step. “It’s here.” He says almost unnecessarily now.
I can’t hear it. I realize that whatever it is must be stalking silently. I keep backing up with Kal only the sound of his shuddering breath accompanying my racing heartbeat and roar of blood and there! The scuff of a large padded foot.
“What’s it look like?” I ask.
“You're crazy, you want a description now?!” He’s panting like he’s on the verge of crying or having a panic attack, probably both.
“It’s actually practical,” I say, “so I know where to stab.”
This seems to give him something else to focus on rather than his inevitable death.
“It’s covered in fur, it’s got big eyes, good place to stab, you’re going to want to avoid its paws and obviously it’s tusks.”
“Tusks?” I clarify, “Not fangs?”
“Does it matter?” He squeaks, obviously striking at it.
“Which way the teeth curve, hell yeah!” I say tripping and then everything goes bad. The monster swipes the troll out of the way and is on me in a second. Except then its head pauses the hot air from its mouth disappearing as it sniffs me.
I curl into a ball, trembling. I'm frozen waiting to die and for some reason that makes me pissed. Adrenaline courses through me so painfully that I feel like I need to move or it'll expload. I roll onto my back, still gripping the weapon.
I hear myself speak calmly and even with a hint of demanding in it. “Where should I aim my spear?”
Kal lets out a mewl of pain as he looks up and then chokes out, “It’s neck, how, why hasn’t it attacked you yet?” I tighten my hand on my spear, “Let me know when it goes to attack.” I pissed myself. I don't know when but that seems to confirm that I am indeed prey.
“Now!” Kal screeches and I wedge the spear in the rock and tense my whole body. It's pitch black and there is a brief second where the spear goes loose and I feel the teeth closing over my whole body breaking skin on my arms. I'm dead. Then the cough of blood splattering me, followed by a wet wheeze and Kal’s panicked screech as he attacks it from above, driving the spear deep into one of its eyes? I get smacked by something and then the monster’s roars and screeches of pain become almost pity-inducing noises as it rolls trying to remove the spears from its face.
Kal grabs me and another spear and runs.
I'm stumbling and tripping as he keeps the inhumane pace up. My feet, ankles, and probably shins as well are bruised or cut up from the rocks. I barely feel it though terrified that it's still right behind us. I wheeze for air and eventually collasp forcing Kal to drag me around a corner and let us catch our breaths.
"We're almost out of it's den and then once we get into the caves we could lose it in the tighter spaces." He pants sounding much more confident.
He also sounds very hurt and I concernedly remember him getting smacked away. I know his father hurt him as well.
"Don't look at me like that," he wheezes, I wince at the way his breathe rattles.
He starts when I hug him, "You saved me."
"Don't thank me yet." He grimaces.
We run and run until the adrenaline long wears off and Kal gasping lets me know, “We’re safe enough for now. It may still be stalking us but it'll give up as soon as we get close enough to the village.”
I realize I’m still holding the bloody spear. It's clunky and not perfect but I can use its broken off end to sweep the ground in front of me.
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