"I need to use the toilet..." the main man repeated.
"OhMyGod-- Just shut up! Now you're just trying to annoy me," the bear man said enraged at the man's childishness. "Jerry's place is around the corner."
Dörk just waved his hand defensively. "Nah... I'm going to use mine. I'm pretty sure everyone's going to shit at Jerry's house, so no thanks." Walking down the cobblestone street, they entered the cul-de-sac split between wizards. Back from the boring discussion with the general. "And please, why do you want to go outside with the soldiers? What are you looking for?"
Callahan just shrugs, looking over his shoulder. "Just looking for some hemlock. Maybe we can coat weapons with it's poison. I plan to teach the doctors how to extract it and concentrate it, dilute it... Stuff like that."
Dörk just nodded. "Good call. So you onto making big moves."
Callahan shrugged again. "It can't hurt. Well... not if they die..." His voice was a little doubtful and disgusted. Hemlock is, compared to other poisonous plants, quite widespread in the south. Needless to say, it can be lethal. "Or do you think we can make bombs out of them?"
The suggestion was disturbing to Dörk, not to mention that it turned his stomach that of all people, Callahan was hinting at chemical warfare. "Please nothing like that...just.. don't..."
-------------------------
"It was a lucky hit."
"And you got away? Just like that? Unscathed?"
"Hmm... no. I broke my leg, lost some fingers, and half my face was smashed in."
The men listening couldn't help but be amazed at the golem's resolute. Nyx, Tamire's chosen champion, was retelling one of her brutal beatings. The flying monster—Lili. The wizards nearby had just followed the end of the story of how the golem had proven its superiority to the monster, annihilating it but also explaining how it may had been teared to shreds, how his body and face were broke and battered beyond recognition
"You're shit for brains, girl." another wizard of the crowd pushed up the golem's lunacy.
Nyx could only show his amusement, remarking on almost the entire thing, but just dreading back. "It was." The golem took a sip of wine. Blood. From the canister left over from Elth. Offered by the lieutenant.
Just as he thought about the fellow, his 'nanny' and the bear of a man walked in through the back gate of the yard. "Bon appetit, everyone... Eh? Where's my plate? Where can I sit?" Dörk drew the attention of several fellow wizards to the master of glyphs. The man accompanying him was definitely Callahan. Tho he said nothing, just sat down and nodded to his fellow wizards.
Immediately upon their arrival, Jerry carried two bowls of soup for his seniors. Callahan had chosen to distance himself from Dörk and the rest of the main characters for some reason, sitting at the opposite end of the table.
"Not bad, huh, not bad at all." Dörk commiserated about the improvised table. Along the way, every Skybinders wizard would do something that was of use to the whole group. But every time they ate and couldn't find a tavern or patio or anything like that, they built a stone table with magic, with tall chairs made from dirt covered with grass or just simply growing wood from ground. Sometimes it was round, sometimes square. Right now, the table was just a long line, long enough for the wizards to sit on either side of it. And yet Dörk had sat a few seats to Nyx's right on the opposite side. "It's nice that you joined us and aren't still rummaging through the rubbish," he said, pointing playfully at the glass of blood Nyx was sipping from.
"Well, I couldn't refuse. The guys were good to me. Especially after they helped me with the 'Catapult'." At those words, Nyx briefly focused his eyes away, not looking straight at him anymore.
The air gradually thickened between the two sides who had mutually agreed traveling the warfields together. The feeling caused Dörk a brief discomfort. He had promised the golem lessons, yet his colleagues had beaten him to it. His entire feat could only make him feel embarrassed. "I honestly thought you would manage and eventually succeed. But..." he sighed, interrupting his sentence. "I'm quite relieved you did what you had to do to succeed. After all, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, right?" he finally conceded.
"You're particularly humble just now, D. What? Did the general yank your ears?" The men sitting next to Dörk laughed at the table, tugging at his own ears and jabbing his tongue at the wizard.
The main man could only shake his head slightly. "A little—but we'll see." Dörk just rested his head in one hand, carrying a spoonful of soup with the other. "I like it... Jerry!" Dörk called out to Jerry like he was in a restaurant. The man in question was also sitting in close proximity to Callahan, talking to other Skybinders. He reacted quickly, his hearing sharp and his youthful reflexes, his neck turning somewhat toward the source of his name. "I love it! Thanks a lot!"
"My pleasure, sir!"
The atmosphere continued at the same pace as before. The men and the golem continued their meal break, talking and sharing crucial information.
Food reserves.
Medical supplies.
Soldiers' morale.
Various resources. Oil, wood, coal, metals, substances, solutions. Alcohol...
"Nyx." Dörk snapped the golem's attention and gave a quick scratch of his beard. "Today or tomorrow, Callahan wants you to escort him with a small group of soldiers."
"Sure... What are we doing?" Nyx leaned back in his makeshift chair curious, but not so eager to get back outside the walls to snack on corpses. Or maybe Callahan wanted the soldiers to help out somewhere else?
"Oh, just guarding the soldiers while they gather wood for construction. But you should talk to him more. Get the full details."
Chopping wood. "Great..." Nyx just scoffed sarcastically at Dörk. "Do I really have to? I didn't come all this way to do what I was doing in Elth." The golem muttered from his gray lips. A reaction like any other, just like a normal human, but unacceptable to Dörk. Not to his plan.
"Well, I don't have time, and Callahan could use the help." He swallowed another spoonful of soup. "Plus, he knows a little bit about fighting. Maybe you can train a little with him."
The golem readjusts himself on the chair, now fixing his hair and getting up to make his way towards the bear-man. "Well, okay." Next to Nyx, however, one of the wizards stops him.
"Ah, hey. Do you think we can have what we agreed on now?" His hand reaches out slightly towards the golem.
What are they talking about? Dörk's nosy attitude could only go into overdrive. "Hmm... sure." His gentle movement catches his own left ring finger. Dörk watches as Nyx takes a deep breath, not out of necessity but trying to prepare himself mentally. And breaks off his finger. SHIIIIIIIIT!!
"Here you go. And don't forget, fill this up." he hands over both his finger and the empty bottle of blood.
Everyone showed their confusion, followed by the golem moving away to the end of the table. "Heh..." One of the wizards chuckled softly, regaining his composure and drinking a whole glass of water to moisten his lips. "When she said she'd given us a finger, I thought she meant figuratively."
"Eh... what's with the finger, guys?" Their inner rambling is disrupted as Dörk, having observed the recent events, is overcome with curiosity.
"She explained to us that she has an artificial body—"
"And we asked her what it was made of. But she doesn't know. And we want to know. So, material." he points to the finger.
"Still, we agreed to gift her some blood." He points to Nyx's bottle used to store blood. "Not too much blood, right, bro?"
The man just shrugs and continues eating his soup, leaving his colleague hanging.
An opportunity to show off was something to be learned. Dörk could only be happy. "When you're done, tell me what it's made of."
Unaware of the discussions of which Nyx was the topic on the other side of the table, he closed the distance between himself and Callahan. "Hey. Dörk says you want me to come with you somewhere tomorrow?"
The man in question had finished his soup and was now sprawled on the mound of earth that served as his chair. "I am. I want to pick up some plants. Not much for trouble, but they might help in a few instances. You in?"
"Sure. Knock on the door when you're ready to go." The golem's reassurance was a welcome feeling for the wizard. "Anyway. I'm going for a walk. See you guys later."
He waved to the group of men, mainly to Jerry, who was closest by, who reciprocated the gesture. The golem simply opened the gate behind the house and walked straight out onto the street. Behind him, however, Dörk seemed a little cornered.
"So... She has a rather strange aura. Is there something you want to tell us?"
He could only swallow a last spoonful of soup. "Well... honestly, in my self-esteem and undoubtedly in my ability to express myself and explain. I don't know." Making the wizards in the group fall flat on their heads on the table.
The same wizard who had previously explained to Nyx the errors in his technique. Now he was on Dörk's tail. "What the hell don't you know? It's obviously a direct blessing from a god." He scoffed back at the wizard. "Liar." he mumbled back to Dörk, finishing his soup.
He could only sigh. Not even a week into the two months to go and he was already hanging by the short thread of a lie. Meaning he had to get out of it somehow. "Pretty cool, huh? I didn't know what to do with her—so I took her along. I mean, what else could I do? Plus, she came willingly and might learn something."
Some Skybinders were still skeptical. "So what? A mere girl marching around the battlefield at your command?"
Dörk just cringed. "Nah... She does what she wants. Plus, I don't think she'd hesitate to rip my ears off if anything were to happen."
The wizard could only shake his head in disagreement. "Do you realize what we have here? She may be capable of much more than this. And she just carries corpses till now and chopping wood?" His voice grew impatient with Dörk's childishness. "I mean, not even priests—clerics have anything like this anymore. I don't think I've seen anyone blessed like this in—50 years?"
A wizard nearby replied. "Nah. Remember that druid in Corrup? When was that? She died 30 years ago?"
"Yeah, something like that."
Dörk just wanted to change the subject. "Something like that. I think she died of old age?"
The same man from earlier continued. "Pff... Who knows." he followed with a shrug. But his eyes were fixed back on Dörk. "Still, if you want something good to come of her, try to be more helpful. Whatever she is, she's not that experienced with magic."
----------------------------
"And then wooosh—horrible arrows rained down on us."
A guard had spoken. This guard... his name was Kollin. "I was scared shitless the whole time." The full expertise of the siege was becoming clearer to Nyx.
The golem just wandered the city streets, looking for something to do—searching through abandoned houses—for things of value—but the encounters with soldiers were becoming more frequent, so he had given up scavenging.
"So what do these lizard people look like?"
The golem's question short-circuited Kollin's mind back to reality. "I only saw them through the telescope, firing the trebuchet." The soldier pointed to the destroyed weapon of war in his right. "Too bad they had their own. Anyway... well, they're tall. Most of them have tails, scales... Some are weaker, others stronger... I don't know."
Nyx could only lean over the edge of the wall. "Still, we dragged and buried people, but even so, I didn't see much of other corpses." Kollin could only adjust his helmet on his head. "I'm not surprised.
Kollin could only adjust his helmet on his head. "I'm not surprised. They've been raiding us for a very long time. Weapons, armor, clothes, food, everything is a mess out there."
Nyx turned back to the soldier, now sitting on a boulder that had fallen from the wall's parapet. "How many soldiers do you have?"
"Pffff... hell if I know... 5 or 6 brigades? We're the 4th." He shrugged, uninterested in the balance of men against the invaders from the south. "Ah—and if you see any other kind of monster, keep in mind that there aren't just lizard people in the enemy army. Some are minotaurs, others are bugbears... minotaurs... Eh—cyclops... Anyway! If it doesn't look human, just shoot it" he tapped the weapon on his shoulder. The rifle was ready to fire, all he had to do was cock the hammer and pull the trigger.
"Are they doing their job?"
Firearms. Very uncommon at the duke's house. All guards are required to carry weapons for esthetics. And know a little magic. SOME THAT WILL BURN THE SKIN OFF YOUR BACK WITH FIRE! BASTARDS!
" You see something?" Kollin jumped next to Nyx near the edge of the wall, peering beyond the forest, his eyes squinting and shielding his sight from the sun with his palm.
The golem could only give a heavy sigh. "No. Just an old memory." But back to the moment at hand, Nyx had to ask. "And why did you join? Were you forced?"
The question was personal, perhaps on more than one level. But the golem had to find out how the army operated. Even if he was within the walls and somewhat under the Skybinders protection... Still.
Kollin just dealt with the question by ruffling his chin. "Nah, nothing like that. Well, kind of. Near where I live, you can get land for veterans. You know, if I get back home after the war, I get a few acres. I have a wife, you know." Kollin's vibe was somehow coming back to life. "So my dad said, 'Go with them, it's easy,' he said. Stupid old man with a stick up his ass..." He shifted his position, now leaning on the wall. "We're crazy, aren't we?"
The seconds Kollin spoke were turning into minutes inside Nyx mind. He was just talking to build a better future for himself, now far away with his wife and wanting to return home with something in his hands. "I don't know, man. It sounds stupid for the most part. Why risk it?" Nyx just wished to speak up about the world above. That gods now harvest human souls in hell. It was already a big risk to die out here, not adding having to explain every people what was happening. Causing chaos between soldier, and maybe to be order his hunt for it. Maybe on a later time. Baby steps.
Kollin just inhaled sharply at Nyx. "Basically, yes. But what can I do? Live with my father my whole life? With my own wife?" He shrugged.
"Still, feels sort of harsh that your dad is telling you go to war. I mean, he's your dad, right? Shouldn't he be stopping you from joining?"
"True. But even so... It doesn't matter. So you came with the wizards? What are they like?"
Unintentionally, Nyx's golem had moved its hands under its chest, for just a second offering a better view, causing Kollin to gasp. "Many are interesting and nice." And Nyx had continued with nothing.
Kollin returned a brief smile. "You're not a girl of many words, eh?" Oh poor Kollin, thinking Nyx was a girl.
She used to be. "So-so."
------------------------
"Long day yesterday, sir?" A guard stood on the garrison wall for his shift. It was strange, they were in the middle of town, patrolling the streets and the outer wall. But someone was needed to watch over the main gain of their garrison. Guess someone had to holler when the gates were to be opened.
Major Parka remained beside the soldiers already here prior to his arrival. To which they had been slightly awkward. Parka was a special case for everyone, except the general and a few of the officers. Just a pot boiling over a fire.
"It was fine. But what about you? What's the situation with the rations?" "We're not too bad off. I've got enough until the next shipment. Two weeks, right?" Parka nodded to the soldier. "Winter's coming, so we've got a bit more. It'll come down the river."
This was somewhat private information tho. But even Parka, a tough guy and rought over the edges understood keeping up morale among the troops was important and it would be a shame to do otherwise.
No one was supposed to know more about it. The shipment is large. And it has to be guarded by two companies. No failure can happen.
"Beautiful morning ain't it, sir?" the soldier cringed. It was nice that Parka broke the silence by answering a few small talk questions. But maybe the soldier had soured the mood, looming 'bad air' on Parka's face. His eyes... His eyes weren't looking at me...
Now the soldier sees over the stone pallet. On the cobblestone road, one of the wizards was approaching, accompanied by the albino- ashed girl the soldiers were whispering about. The soldier didn't say a word, just glanced over, seeing Parka coming down the stairs. "Woh..." he exhaled.
As usual, someone had turned the gate mechanism, and someone had entered. "Ghh... I'm tired of turning this crap." The soldier in question might have been overheard if anyone was close enough. He closed the gate behind Nyx and Callahan.
"Do you want to wait here?" "I'm okay, yeah." The golem replied to the wizard like bear, leaving Nyx alone. His place of standing was still close to the gate, only a few meters away, leaving space for the various soldiers to continue their work. Hard to say they were doing anything like that.
A fair proportion of them slowed down their pace to look at Nyx, then back to their work, then back looking at him.
Eh... It's getting tiring just to have everyone stare at me like that.
Most of the majority seemed to be gossiping or flirting every time the golem made eye contact. The status quo had prompted Nyx to examine yet again his 'equipment'. Both his vest and pants were losing their colored integrity but were generally still in good condition. Good enough for... forestry work.
"Girl!"
Obviously me. The golem saw Callahan walking along Parka. "The man here said you were a woodcutter?" Parka got straight to the point.
"Yes. Why?" The sexy golem, who now was turning the soldiers' heads around with their belts strapped over their 'frustration', spoke unafraid in front of the officer. Parka was about two inches taller than Nyx, but both were stoic. Nyx less so-so because of his own shy attitude on occurrences. But if cutting people down and fighting monsters doesn't make you tougher, nothing does.
"We need to get our trebuchets back up and running. Some need new parts, others need to be completely rebuilt."
It was Callahan's turn to speak. "I talked to some colleagues who are good at mechanics. However, they will be a little late."
Parka merely grinned at Callahan. "What's keeping them so busy they can't be here with you?"
When the boys mentioned they were experimenting on Nyx's missing finger, Callahan was like, 'Huh?' "They're doing some experiments with a material." Callahan replied, looking at Nyx. To which the golem roled his eyes.
"Whatever... You'll have an commanding officer with you, so follow his orders. Got it?"
"Yes, sir." Nyx answered for both of them, continuing the train of vibes—whatever those were-- between him and Parka. As the officer left, he motioned for the two not to follow him.
"The captain is aware you are to join him. Just wait here." he said without much interest in the two before walking away.
"Why did you mention I used to cut wood?" Nyx turned fully back to Callahan, resting his hands cupped under his feminine large chest.
Like most men, including those his age, he felt a tingle at the movement of a beautiful woman's breasts in front of him. "Yes-s... But only because he was asking and trying to get you off the picture." Callahan handled it like a 16-year-old caught stealing cherries. "That's what Dörk said, so I didn't hate to say you'd be helpful." He joked, flinching one last time when Nyx dropped her hands.
"What's wrong with you? I don't bite." Nyx raised an eyebrow. The golem understood the attitude of the men around him. He was one of them and felt the same way every time a pretty girl was around. But it's starting to pestere him. Kara was different, though. Not at first. At first, she was beautiful and intimidating and attractive, but nothing clichéd, so she remained just a pretty girl who had become a good friend.
"Good to know."
A third voice joined the conversation between the two. "My name is Bram. I'm will be in charge."
"Pleased to meet you," Callahan said and shook hands with the man. Nyx repeated the gesture. At heart, he was still a man, so he acted like one most of the time. Including shaking hands with the captain.
"Let's save the talk for the road. We're leaving in a few minutes, just to load the cart with tools." His eyes, previously on Callahan, moved to Nyx. "Sorry, but you'll have to walk with the others." His voice wasn't amused, but he was smirking.
Cheap shots, huh? Just like Bella.
"Perfect. My job is to protect your soldiers. And you, Captain." Nyx shot him a quick double-take of his eyes. To say Bram was visibly upset would be an understatement. The man froze for a moment at the golem's suggestion that HE needed protection. But that was essentially why the golem and the wizard were here.
"Thanks a lot, but don't underestimate us. Either my soldiers or me." His ego couldn't let it go, tapping twice on the armor on his chest.
Are these two weighing each other's balls? Callahan saw how the two were gradually trying to rile each other up. He didn't know if it was just misogyny in the air or sexual frustration. From both of them.