Chapter 6: Chapter 5

The trip to Lockward felt like an eternity. Even with the cold air, the sun had been relentless against my skin, making every day miserable. Due to my abnormal sensitivity to the sun, I had to take frequent breaks in the shade to avoid dying of heat exhaustion.

Many trees had shed their canopies, making it difficult to find shelter from the daylight. I was just thankful I didn’t explode into flames when the cover was sparse.

There was faint smoke and a pungent rotten egg smell leaching from my skin, which I believe was caused by my hair burning in the sun.

I had to consider this when I ventured into town, as I didn’t know how people would react. They might try to kill me. I wasn’t sure how well-known the Nightstalker’s curse was, but I was pretty confident people would be frightened seeing me catch fire.

This attempt to beat the odds would end prematurely if I were killed the moment I stepped into town. I didn’t walk all this way for it to end in that manner. There had to be something I could do to conceal this side effect of the sun.

The fur coat had long been stuffed into my backpack. One would think that wearing it would block the sun, but it created an oven inside, which exacerbated the situation. I no longer felt cold, only the blazing heat of my flesh baking in the sun.

In addition to my skin turning into leather, my eyes struggled to stay open. I couldn’t see anything but the sun’s blinding light throughout most of the day. Worried I would walk off the ocean cliff on accident, I tried to stay as close to the forest as possible, but the uneven terrain was energy-consuming.

I flopped down underneath a tree that still had some of its golden and brown leaves, drinking from my water pouch I had filled with snow a few times. Eating snow for thirst was terrible, and I saw many children get sick doing it, but I had difficulty finding anywhere to fill it up. Illness was also low on my priorities. If the nightstalkers lived in that disgusting cavern with bat defecation everywhere, my eating of snow would probably not kill me.

This trip had already escalated to a week, and I still presumably had a day of walking left. I laboured to hike during the afternoon as my skin would begin to melt off, even in the freezing weather. Snowfall made this bearable but didn’t block the sun’s assaults.

My adventure to cure vampirism was already preparing to come to an anticlimactic end. In time, I would only be able to function at night. This would make me highly suspicious, and conversations with people about the location of healers or medicine would be difficult. It wasn’t as if I could open up with, “hey, you know where the cure for vampirism is?” that would have me reported to the authorities.

A light mist of steam danced off my body into the chilly air. I leaned against the white bark and stared up at the branches swaying in the wind. The sun would set shortly, and I could travel unhindered. Traversing at night was going to be my only option now. Voyaging during the day simply lengthened the trip.

Realising how quickly I was turning into a monster made me depressed. I hoped that the side effects would take longer, but the burning was one of the earliest to manifest. Luckily, I hadn’t the urge to eat anyone yet. Not that I had seen another person since Richard.

Since I was likely to be in this spot for the remainder of the afternoon, I unenthusiastically flipped the brass buckle at the top of my backpack. I removed some bread and tossed the leather bag to my side before stuffing the bread into my cheek like a chipmunk, chewing it for longer than necessary.

My food was going stale, or nightstalkers liked nothing but human flesh and blood. Swallowing felt unnatural as the soggy mush took some effort to push down. My throat didn’t want to swallow it, like my brain didn’t understand it was food. Even the dried venison Richard had put in here for me lacked flavour but was much better than the bread. While eating was challenging, it at least alleviated my stomach's nagging.

After dragging myself to my feet a few hours later, I started my way inland at an angle to ensure I made progress to Lockward while simultaneously searching for a river or stream. I desperately needed to fill my water, and had yet to run into any outlets flowing into the ocean. This detour made the trip longer, since I had to walk on mountainous terrain that worsened the farther I travelled into the forest.

Hours passed, and my mind became clouded as it seemed like I was wading through water. Due to my legs' difficulty in moving forward, I tripped numerous times on nothing. The noise of birds and branches snapping under my boots sounded muffled, like I was listening through a wall. Thoughts outside of the need for sleep were nonexistent. Exhaustion pillaged my emotions of any energy.

It was almost as if I were trapped in a dream as the ground gradually flattened out, and I stopped at a small pond with a thin layer of ice. I wasn’t sure if it was real at first.

My eyes warily stared at the surface as if this was a trick. Paranoia was setting in as I glanced around like someone had left this water here as a trap. I felt anxious about my surroundings, Even though I had no reason to.

Despite my feelings and knowing that drinking from the small pool of stagnant water was not wise, I fell to my knees and plunged my face through the ice. The frozen surface was at least thin and spared me from possibly knocking myself unconscious like an idiot.

The water needed to be boiled, but I had to satisfy my animalistic thirst and was without a way to heat it. The question of whether nightstalkers could become ill would be answered soon.

Removing my head from the pond, I sat back on my legs and gasped for air. My breath and face steamed in the brisk wind before my pause ended, and I dived back in. I could not consume enough of the icy water. It was difficult to pry myself away as my stomach felt bloated, and I was worried I would hurt myself.

As my face returned from its swim, I met eyes with the black wolf which stood on the other side of the pond. They stared at me with what I thought was a look of judgement rather than curiosity, tilting their head back and forth.

Was this animal following me? It was not for food because it could have eaten me far sooner.

I flipped my wet, silver hair back. “What? I am thirsty,” I stated, and their red eyes just stared at me, rarely blinking.

The water inside my belly dampened the furnace that had been making my life miserable. Getting chilly for the first time in days was pleasant. I glanced at the twilight sky, feeling rejuvenated by the brisk air. It was likely to stay below freezing soon, which was completely fine with me.

I filled my water pouch, sat down and crossed my legs, thinking about my next moves. Entering the town would have to be done at night or close to it. From there, I could sneak my way onto a boat. After that, getting to a large city would be my preferred course of action. Unfortunately, I was unlikely to find any help this far into the country. A large ministry would be an excellent place to ask around, but I wasn’t sure where one was. I did not really understand maps or my location in the world.

At least my mother taught me how to write and speak properly. That would benefit me… hopefully.

Father truly wanted to live away from civilisation. While he rarely spoke of the world outside our village, when he did, it was about how the luxury of living in a city clouded everyone’s minds. That when war arrived at their doors, they wouldn’t know how to deal with the hardship that would accompany it. I didn’t share this sentiment. Truthfully, I was eager to see this strange land and see how much comfort my father was talking about.

My vision had been void of the glowing window since killing the Nightstalker. It just seemed so bizarre to me. I kept telling myself that it was in my head, but I would have to be able to imagine something like that. I believed there had been a magical element to this. Father told me about mages casting spells, but it seemed foolish. A lot of the things he said were far-fetched.

There had to be a trigger for it.

“Open”—I tossed my arms up, and the wolf tilted its head at me—“Yeah, I know I look insane,” I mumbled as my hand fell in defeat.

It might come up if I used the word that the window displayed in that odd language. I wasn’t confident I could pronounce it, but I was about to try.

“System?”

Yep, nothing. I was delusional. It never happened, and this curse had eroded my mind.

As I stared forward at the wolf, I sighed. “You got any ideas?” I asked, and its head tilted again like a dog trying to understand what you were saying to it.

My eyes closed, and I sat my forearms on my knees with a long exhale. This might be less about words and more about thoughts. I wondered what would happen if I focused and imagined the window again. The white background and the green and yellow lines that sat on top of the waving shapes… I wanted to see this system again.

 

While my eyes were closed, a white square appeared, startling me even though I sort of expected it.

Upon opening my eyes, the window did not move. Instead, shapes with symbols materialised in the middle. I reached out, trying to touch it, but the system appeared as if it were in my head rather than physically in front of me.

However, that thought did not last long as I heard a soft female voice say: <touch mode enabled>.

My hand now caused ripples through the window that was directly in front of me.

Yes. Yes. YES!

I was floored that I could summon this wild occurrence again. My finger eagerly touched the symbol, which looked like a circle with lines.

 

A map appeared, and I saw my village and Lockward with lines I assumed were roads.

This was amazing! This would be an incredible resource. My enthusiasm was a bit on the bright side for the first time in days. Of course, I did not know what was happening, but that was okay.

After struggling to return to the menu, a waving motion seemed to do the trick. Some of this stuff was locked? I tried pressing it, but nothing happened. Finally, I touched the icon that looked like a person, which did not have a lock symbol.

 

Hmm. Stats. A lot was going on here that I didn’t understand. The dead-looking hand at the top next to my name didn’t make me feel too optimistic. Whatever that meant, I was sure it was not a positive thing.

Health and stamina numbers are vaguely what I remember seeing before.

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So health was like my life? And stamina was my endurance, like how much could I run? Everything was pretty self-explanatory after staring at it for a moment.

I wasn’t sure what dexterity amounted to. Maybe it was like fighting skills? Or a measure of my crafting ability? I was pretty decent at making bows, but that was about it.

Why was the thing called Essence zero? I felt like I was getting cheated out of something there. Everything else had base numbers except it. That word was truly foreign to me.

It seemed odd thinking that I was reading a language that wasn’t my own yet, translating it into what I knew.

Why was Essence the only thing that I had no concept of?

Agility was the third highest thing, which made sense if it was related to speed; I had a touch of swiftness in my step compared to others.

Some bars were slightly filled. Was there a way to fill them? And how do I make them go up?

Agh. So many questions. I wondered if anyone else had seen this. If so, I would love to chat with them.

The green plus signs looked like they had a purpose, so I went ahead and put my finger on the one next to health.

 

What a rip-off. I got two health points for all that exp.

I should have given myself Essence or something, even though I didn’t know what it did. It bothered me that it was zero.

So Allocable XP is what I can use to improve my stats.

This felt sorta fun. Rewarding in a way. Now I need to find out what gives me XP. The higher I got my health, the less likely I was to die… that could be a problem for other people if I lost my mind... I wouldn’t think about that too much.

I waved my hand, returning to the main menu.

 

When I clicked on the booklet button with a question mark, it was just a dictionary, like my mother taught me with. There were a lot of words on the list, and it carried on endlessly after I figured out a flicking motion that moved the window down.

That was to be saved for later.

Upon touching the three blue lines at the top of the window, it closed, and I saw the wolf looking at me as if I was crazy.

My eyes glanced down at my arm, still wrapped in the bandages I had left home with. The white cloth had turned brown from sleeping on the ground and my blood penetrating from under.

How Nightstalkers healed was beyond my knowledge, but the wound no doubt could use a scrub. The wrapping certainly was in need of a cleaning. Given how much I sweated these past few days, I should wash everything I wore. Walking into the city looking like a mess would not help me.

Even my own smell was starting to bother me.

I grabbed the end of the bandage and hesitated as my heart pounded in my throat.

Although I knew it would be bad, there was still hope, and that drove me to slowly remove the wrapping, causing my heart to race faster with every rotation.

It was worse than expected as I unravelled the last bit of cloth, and it fell to the ground. My wrist was still severely swollen, and the sliced skin from the Nightstalker’s nails oozed black pus. The decaying odour reminded me of rioting fish, making it difficult not to vomit as I gagged.

Shit. This was bad.

I dunked my forearm into the icy bath and struggled to wash off the unnatural-looking fluid, which held a thickness.

Like oil, the dark substance floated on the water, not mixing.

Not only had the wound turned black but also the veins in my forearm were greyish. I knew my arm was dying, and I would soon have to decide when to take it off.

Unfortunately, the curse did not seem to cure whatever was wrong with the flesh. If anything, it was exasperating the issue. Pare the course of my luck. I couldn’t get a break.

My fingers could barely move, but that was progress from their prior paralysis. At first, I thought my lack of mobility was due to the bandages being too tight. However, that was not the case now. I couldn’t even feel my hand a day ago, but now there was some sensation in the cold water.

On a positive note, the swelling made it hard to tell, but my wrist did not seem broken anymore. The Nightstalker's jaws absolutely crushed it.

After removing all traces of the black fluid from my lacerations, I moved to a new spot away from my arms mess.

I rinsed the wraps off and strained them onto the snow next to me, extracting all the black from the bandages.

While twisting the wraps to get all the water out, I glanced up at the wolf lying in the snow with its paws crossed on the hill above the pond. It watched me closely, sniffing the air.

Assumably, it smelled my arm rioting.

I swathed my wrist and forearm tightly, ensuring I couldn’t smell anything through the bandages, but in a way that allowed my fingers to have some movement.

Then, after some cautious smells of my dressings, I took my clothes off and, in a squatted position, washed them in the pond.

As I looked up again, I locked eyes with the wolf in a naked stare-down. Which made me more embarrassed than it should have, considering it was a wolf and not a person. I nonetheless wished for its gaze to move.

“Could you go somewhere?” I asked, making shooing gestures at the motionless wolf gazing at me. My lips pressed together. “Or just keep doing it. Whatever.” I returned to rinsing my clothes.

Changing into soaking cold garments, I cheerfully resumed my journey and headed back towards the coast. With my stomach stuffed with liquid and my pouch full, I was sure to make it to town without dying of thirst.

My clothes froze over as I walked through the freezing night. Despite the chilly wind and snowstorm, I stayed comfortable for the entire trip. My clothes dried promptly when my skin warmed from the sun the next day.

The wolf did not accompany me on my trip. Yet, I had a feeling it was not far behind. Almost as if I sensed its presence.

Hm. Odd.

My pace was good, even with me napping in the shade whenever possible, I arrived at the city around dusk. As the sun set over the horizon, I stopped on the hill overlooking the harbour city spread out before me. Docks stretched out from the mainland like fingers, and massive boats sidled next to them, unloading into the port. Men pour in and out of the hauls like ants in a line.

The enormous white sails of the anchored ships flapped about in the chilly breeze as some were being pulled to their posts for the night. Considering that there was a storm approaching, it was wise. The ocean had been angry for the past two days and was likely to hit land with its dark clouds shortly.

In awe, I peered over the large city from my elevated ground for quite some time. The red brick building I had only heard about stood multiple stories with chimes blowing smoke into the evening air. Nearly every building had its windows lit up, anticipating that the sun would soon leave. It took a lot of work to locate a stone road that was not filled with horses and people. I had never seen such a congregation of individuals in my life that moved around with such a purposeful flow.

The wall that cradled the city stood as a defence I could not imagine would crumble to even the greatest of armies.

A gust of wind tossed me back into reality as I stumbled from its push.

I stared down at Lockward. “You can do this, Kade. A nightstalker wasn’t the end of you. Surely a touch of social interaction would not be your end,” I reassured myself, but it didn’t help.

Onward.

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