Chapter 7: Chapter 7 – The Maiden in the Ruins

⊱————-　Ofris’ PoV　————-⊰

 

A long sight left my lips as I saw three far too familiar silhouettes march right into the large ruin of the temple they had centered their whole life around. For six days, I had tried to cope with their weird antics and their never-ending discussions, but after visiting the very same crumbling ruins dozens of times even the patience I prided myself with had long come to its end.

If it was only for the three archeologists that tried their utmost to unveil the secrets of this long lost civilization I would probably still be able to just bear with it and keep protecting them like I had been tasked to, but sadly they had four ‘followers’ that were busy turning this otherwise simple task into a living hell.

The four of them had registered their adventurers’ party mere weeks ago and had already accepted the job of protecting the scholars during their excavation. It was a job that could easily turn dangerous thanks to all kinds of monsters, wild animals and worse roaming the forests that surrounded the ruins, but they had taken it without thinking twice.

It was easy to judge that the boys were by far too inexperienced, naive and weak to even think of choosing requests like this, but nobody in the adventurers’ guild could talk their clients out of it. Those old fools simply accepted the four without even thinking about it twice, leaving no chance for the two women working the counter at that time to step in.

Even if they had found the chance, there was no law nor rule preventing the boys from taking any job they liked, as long as the requester accepted them. They could only order them to take an adviser with them, an experienced adventurer that would teach them everything they had to know and step in when they couldn’t handle the task alone. It would cost them half of what this job would net them, which was the advisers pay, but they could only swallow this one bitter pill.

The bad news was: I was that adviser. It was my job now to fix the mess they had tossed themselves in. I not only had to protect the archaeologists but also prevent the overconfident ‘heroes’ from becoming a convenient meal anytime soon. There certainly were enough mouths to feed.

I could only blame Risa, one of the girls working for the adventurers’ guild, for thinking of me as the most reliable and trustworthy existence there was to be found in our little town. She definitely saw far too much of a good person in me. Truth is: I just couldn’t look in her eyes and say no.

“Who knows what she would say if she knew how close I am to leaving those fools behind and returning home alone...”

Sure, I had never betrayed her high expectations, but spending a full week together with these four had made me question my decision of training the next generation altogether. It wasn’t the first time I did accompany beginners' parties, I had done it dozens of times before, but I would certainly never do it again – at least I hoped so.

With thirty-five years, I wasn’t exactly old when compared to many other adventurers who worked until their late forties or even fifties, but I felt gray hairs growing on my head whenever I saw the beginners I was supervising roam around and develop new weird ideas.

This new batch of fools was the worst I had so far. Not only were they overestimating themselves, especially Maxon, who should be the most mature of them all with his nineteen years of age, but they also had completely unfitting ideas about what life as an adventurer should look like. Their dreams could be summed up as the “three big g’s”, namely gold, girls and grog, though they still seemed to prefer sweet beverages.

In their eyes, just defeating a strong enemy would be enough to net them a life in luxury, while in reality, it was most often those who avoided such obvious dangers that found happiness in the end. If that party of self-declared heroes didn’t step up their game soon, I would end up participating in their funeral rather than a silly parade held in their honor.

Reluctantly I walked towards the ruin they had disappeared into. It must have been a majestic building, given its sheer size and the fact that layers upon layers of colorful gardens and artificial canals had once covered its roof. Sadly the complex had long lost most of its beauty to me, who was forced to see it day in, day out and without end in sight. I would rather see my small, shabby house again…

When I reached the shadows of the rather untrustworthy ruin I gave my eyes a few seconds to accustom to the moody light conditions awaiting me. Not only would it prevent me from falling over the debris scattered everywhere, but it would also allow me to fend off possible dangers awaiting me deeper inside a little easier. Neither the scientists, old, white-haired men that should know far better, nor the immature ‘heroes’ had listened when I gave them this advice, even though it could easily save their life one day.

Other than when I told them how to make fire, find fresh water and set up traps, none of my teachings had ever stuck to their heads. While they still seemed to realize how important survival skills were, they only counted the most obvious skills as worthy of being remembered. Not charging into a ruin unprepared didn’t seem to be one of them.

“Why do I even waste my time with them...”

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At first, I had honestly wanted to train these newcomers, I really had, but after three or four days at most there was nothing but money and my sense of duty to still keep me going.

As leader and overseer of new-founded parties, I would net half of their income, which wasn’t much but at least helped paying bills. Now that we had stayed here for two more days than the official contract had tasked us with, it was more or less uncertain if we would even be paid a single coin more by continuing to waste time in these ruins.

In the end, Risa might hand me a bag filled with coins worth six days of work rather than eight or nine. And I couldn’t even guess how long this would continue. There was no need to stock up on necessaries as the ruins had both drinkable water and good hunting grounds only waiting to be exploited - by me alone, that is.

If only the scholars would have reached new conclusions or learned something new about the Foxkin that had once lived at this place, about their history or maybe even their magic, all of this would certainly be worth the effort, but after more than eight hundred years of expeditions, three more men hungry for knowledge obviously wouldn’t make much of a difference.

“I just want to go home and sleep in a real bed...”

My silent wish was cruelly crumbled to dust as a wave of loud voices reached my ears – the noisy bunch had found something. I immediately hurried deeper into the ruin, passing by the dozens of mosaics that had long lost all their colors and appeal.

It didn’t take long to reach their side and even less time to guess what they had found, as all of them, ‘heroes’ and scholars, had gathered around a cone of light that shone down onto a small silhouette that was huddling against the crumbling remains of a wall.

“A girl?”

I only realized what exactly she was when I stepped closer and pushed Maxon and Kean aside to get a better look at their finding. Waves of red-brownish hair now greeted me, shining like jewelry in the sun that still had not fully risen over the horizon. I was left in a daze, that was until I discovered the two large, furry ears on her head.

“It’s a Beastkin...”

The girl just sat there on the cold, damp floor, bitterly shaking from the coldness that had attacked her during the night. There was nothing on her body that could protect her from our eyes, not even underwear. Only her knees and legs were still protecting her honor, though they, too, were shaking miserably. She was a mess, and I could only guess how she had ended up here.

This far away from any human settlement, there should only warriors and spies of her race roaming the forests, but this girl neither had a single weapon lying around anywhere near her nor were there any traces of a fire. There wasn’t even a piece of fur or fabric she could have used to guard herself against the cold.

“She slept here?! Like this?!”

I was stupid for thinking she had closed her eyes for more than a mere second. Not only was her whole skin shaking like dry leaves in the wind, her skin, too, openly showed the damage the night had dealt to her. It was almost as pale as chalk. How could anybody rest in conditions like this?

Aside from her already bluish looking lips and her colorful hair, the girl almost looked like a ghost. She tried to say something, but not even a single complete word left her lips. It didn’t matter, as I wouldn’t be able to understand her language anyway.

Before I realized, I had already taken off my cloak. I grasped it with both of my hands and slowly went over to the girl, giving utmost care as to not scare her in any way. When I covered her with the thick, black fabric, she looked up to me, with amber-colored eyes that openly revealed the traces of her grief. She had cried.

“Damn...”

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