Chapter 9: The Man in the Hat, Part 4

When List left camp, she didn't precisely have a destination or even heading in mind—beyond getting as far away from the village as quickly as she could. Valerie's teacher might have scared the locals enough to let them leave, but any group of people willing to hang someone on suspicion of being a menace was liable to be equally willing to hunt down anyone who'd hurt them in revenge. And when the proverbial hornets swarmed, she wanted to be as far away as possible, and preferably nowhere near the man who'd kicked the nest.

Even if he'd kicked it by saving her life.

She didn't steal all of their food. That felt like a poor way to repay the both of them for saving her life. But she did take a couple of hard tack biscuits for the road, along with a few strips of peppered jerky. They had plenty to spare, and on top of that, they could walk into a town without everyone pointing at their demonic appearances and running screaming, which meant they could always replace it at the next town they reached.

Or they could sit in a tavern, and get a proper meal. Or they could go back home and get one there. A hot, fresh cooked meal, full of food you couldn't take on the trail because it went bad too quickly or required a kitchen to actually prepare. Involuntarily, she imagined a plate of hot eggs and still sizzling bacon over steaming rice, and her stomach gurgled.

Maybe she should have stolen all their food.

Absorbed in fantasies of a meal that didn't taste like literal garbage, List didn't see the old man until she practically tripped over him. 

She hissed, just managing to stop herself short of trampling the man. He was an old, olive skinned man, his long white beard and eyebrows making up for his completely bald, wrinkled head. With a slight hunch in his slender frame, he looked even smaller than her. He wore simple, slightly ragged monastic robes that had once been white, but long since faded and stained into a dull beige. He also wore a dark cloth blindfold over both of his eyes.

"Oh my!" the old man gasped. "Terribly sorry, dear girl! I didn't mean to startle you."

"Right. No. You're fine, I just . . ." List trailed off as she checked their surroundings, seeing nothing but forest around them. The road wasn't far from here, but she still wasn't close enough to see it. She took note of the blindfold over the man's eyes again, and an unwelcome pang of concern crept into her chest. "Are you . . . lost?"

"Hm? Oh heavens no. I am never lost so long as I follow the guidance of the Light. It has never steered me wrong, and today is no different!" the old man said. "It is so good to finally meet you, brave hero!"

". . . what?"

"Apologies, I'm afraid I tend to ramble. A side effect of my age—I've done this all wrong," the old man said. "I am Gidus, of the Church of the Seven's Light. And I have been searching for you—brave hero of the outside world, born to foreign soil, and the only one who can topple the reign of Mad King Digax!"

"I'm sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else," List said. "In fact you definitely have me confused with someone else."

"Oh you needn't be so modest, my dear girl," Gidus said. "I can see the radiance of the Light's promise cascading off of you!"

List stood silent for a moment as the man spread his arms out in jubilation—facing a nearby tree.

"I'm . . . standing over here," List said.

"What?" Gidus cocked his head for a moment, turning to try and face the direction List's voice had come from. "Oh! Yes, of course! I see now. You are even more radiant with the Light's promise than I imagined!"

The old man might have been the most surreal thing List had ever experienced. In fact, she almost suspected she was somehow still delirious from being nearly strangled to death a few hours ago. Or maybe she was dead, and everything she'd experienced in the last few hours was a particularly mundane and disappointing afterlife that was now finally taking a turn into the nonsensical. Possibly, Valerie’s teacher had (correctly) suspected her for a food thief, and made sure to leave out biscuits laced with a hallucinogenic poison that he kept on hand as a punishment for enterprising thieves and pests. He seemed like the sort to do something like that.

But no. Strange as he was, no amount of mentally slapping and shaking herself awake made him vanish. He was real. And most probably, insane.

"I'm going to leave now," List said.

"Oh, no!" Gidus protested. "You must come with me at once! Your destiny awaits!"

Gidus grabbed List's wrist, and she reflexively tried to pull away, only to find her arm locked in place. The old man's grip was as solid as steel, and yet he didn't seem to be exerting any effort at all. 

"Let go of me, before I do something you regret," List said, but Gidus cheerfully ignored her, already walking off with her deeper into the forest.

Gritting her teeth, List planted her feet and tried to heave the man over her shoulder—only to find herself being dragged along, digging grooves into the dirt as she was dragged and collecting shrubbery around her ankles as they went. No matter how much she resisted, she couldn't so much as budge Gidus off course.

"It will be a long and perilous journey, and you will have much to learn about this land if you are to save it." Gidus declared, not seeming to even notice List's struggle. "But I'm sure you are up to the task."

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List grabbed at a fallen log with her free hand and tail, only to be pried off it without Gidus so much as glancing back at her. With a growl, the tattoos along her arm began to glow, and red lightning sparked across her skin and into the arm holding her. Gidus absentmindedly giggled to himself, and kept right on dragging.

List had no idea what was going on, who this man was, or even what he was, because it wasn't an ordinary person. What she did know was that she wanted to get away from him as quickly as she could.

"Alright," List said, switching tactics. "You win. If destiny says I have to topple the Mad King, who am I to argue? Could you just . . . wait right here for one second though?"

Gidus finally paused and turned around, one of his eyebrows rising quizically out from behind his blindfold. "Hm?"

"Just . . . right here. Don't move. I will be right back. I forgot some . . . lady things I'm going to need for our journey. I just need to run back, grab them, and we can be off."

"Oh. Of course!" Gidus said without hesitation. He released List's wrist, and gave a smile to the air three feet to her right. "I shall await your return."

"Yes. Do that," List said. She blinked several times. She couldn't believe that had actually worked. But as long as it had, she wasn't going to question it. And without another thought, she turned, and walked in the opposite direction. That was it. The last straw. If she was going to keep dealing with insanity like werewolves and forest madmen, she decided she may as well not have to deal with it alone.

---

Valerie and Arden returned to camp to find List anxiously awaiting their return, already drinking coffee from a tin mug and keeping an eye on the forest for some reason.

"You're still here," Valerie said, eyes wide.

"Don't sound so disappointed," List said. "Everything alright?"

"Well," Valerie shot a glance at Arden, who nodded without taking his eyes off of List. "Listen. I know you said you don't like people, but I was wondering if you'd like to stick with us? At least for a while? Until we find a different town that won't immediately throw you in a cage?"

"Sure, whatever," List said.

"Look, I just don't think you should be out alone—wait, what?" Valerie said.

"I said sure," List said. "I haven't really had much luck with towns, but who knows. Maybe fifteenth one's the charm."

"You'll at least have someone to vouch for you this time," Valerie offered.

"As long the two of you don't stir up an angry mob all on your own," List retorted.

Too caught up in her own relief at not having to convince List to stay, Valerie didn't notice what Arden did. The red marks on her wrist. The fresh dirt caked to the ankles of her leggings. The slight tussle to her hair. Not to mention her sudden attitude change about staying with them.

Something had happened while they were gone. Something she wasn't sharing with them.

"I'm looking forward to traveling with you, List," Arden said, extending his hand to shake. "I'm sure there's much we can learn from one another."

List stared at the hand without taking it. "Right. So, when are we leaving? The sooner we get out of this forest, the better."

The doctor locked eyes with the hellborn, and a very similar exchange to what happened between her and Valerie happened between the two of them. Only it was the inverse. Instead of sudden, unspoken trust, on instinctive level, List and Arden both got the sense that the two of them were not going to fit well together. But Arden was too curious about the hellborn to let her go.

"I suppose we can get underway after breakfast," Arden suggested.

"Perfect," List said.

At least for now, both of them were going to try to make this work.

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