Chapter 14: Chosen, Chapter 15: The Foolhardy are Bathed in Blood

Aidan

The Realms

Unknown date (day 4)

Late morning

Mistvale Highlands, en route to Ceallach Macht

Aidan and Brighid were both quieter than usual during their northward trek. For his part, Aidan was puzzling over his relationship with Brighid, trying to make sense of things. Even if he disregarded the fact that she was, at best, an AI, it still confused him how comfortable he felt with her after such a short time. Aidan hadn't been lying when he told Brighid that he had difficulties making friends; it usually took him quite a while to feel relaxed around a new person. The redheaded centaur, however, seemed to know exactly what was needed to draw him out of his shell.

He considered that for a long time. Yes, Brighid was stunningly beautiful, at least her upper body, and he was coming around to the fact that she was part-horse. That didn't truly make a big difference to him, though. Physical beauty was undoubtedly welcome, and he would have found a human woman with Brighid's body and features immensely sexually attractive back on Earth. That said, he cared much more about how he and his partner interacted. There had to be an emotional connection between them to attract Aidan's interest. Somehow, he felt that connection with Brighid.

She teased him in just the right ways and just the right amount to engage him mentally and make him want to tease her back. It would be incredibly easy to overdo the teasing or to do it cruelly or thoughtlessly, but she came off as earnest and flirtatious instead. She was simultaneously a warrior, a noble, and an essential craftswoman, yet nothing she did or said made Aidan think he mattered to her any less than members of her tribe. Any of those three lifestyles could easily have given her an attitude or a superiority complex, nevermind that he was a foreigner, but Brighid was one of the most down-to-earth people he had met. At least, she was once he graduated from "human" to "Aidan". Even when Aidan had been "human", though, she had still treated him civilly and confronted her mother and the rest of the governing body of her tribe in part because she felt they were mistreating him.

That all taken into account, however, Aidan would have had massive doubts about what Brighid thought about him if it weren't for the relationship prompts. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about those. They almost seemed like cheating. On the one hand, having indisputable independent confirmation of her feelings made him much more secure in his feelings towards her. On the other hand, it made the relationship feel cheaper somehow, as if he was only selecting the correct dialogue choices to cause a linear relationship meter to increase. It forced him to confront that he was falling for a video game character.

Aidan scowled as his thoughts spun around and around in his head. He made himself stop brooding on his companion before his good mood soured further and decided to soak in the natural beauty of the Highlands instead. He looked up and surveyed the hills around him, which was the only reason he saw the monster charging at him in time to let out a startled yelp and dodge to the side. The dog-sized creature only managed to clip him, but even that was enough to spin Aidan around and send him sprawling face-down into the grass.

He rolled over onto his back just in time to see the thing pounce at him again. There was no way to dodge, and his sword was knocked away by the first collision, so all Aidan could do was try to grab the creature as it leaped for his throat. The impact as it slammed into his outstretched hands jammed his elbows into the ground and nearly made him lose his grip, but his adrenaline had kicked in. He gripped tight onto damp, matted fur, and did his best to keep his opponent's rat-like snout full of needle-sharp teeth away from him.

Whatever the monster was, it was nearly as strong as Aidan and must have weighed at least fifty pounds. He struggled desperately with it, pushing it back as it scrabbled for purchase on his breastplate and trying to divert its frenzied lunges away from his face and neck. Without his weapon, he could only hope to survive long enough for Brighid to rescue him—or so he thought until he remembered he could cast Flame Jet from his hands. He shifted his grip, grabbing it under its neck with his left hand and heaving upwards to push it away from him even as he began chanting the words to the spell and gesturing with his right hand.

Unfortunately, that made Aidan an easy target for the second rat-beast, which bit down onto his free hand just as he began to cast. The pain nearly made him lose concentration on his spellcasting, but adrenaline and desperation gave him enough focus to shriek out the last word and twist his hand into the required gesture despite the rat-thing clinging to it. Immediately, the monster above him screamed and tried to jerk away from him, but Aidan refused to let it go for the agonizingly long two seconds it took for the fire to catch in its fur. Then he threw it away from him and immediately turned the magical flames on the oversized rat trying to tear his hand off at the wrist. The fire struck it right between its eyes, and its jaws released him as it, too, screamed in pain and staggered away.

Aidan rolled to his feet and prepared to cast the spell again, but suddenly Brighid was there, her glaive sweeping past him in a gleaming arc to decapitate the rat he had just driven off, and then spinning around to impale the one frantically trying to extinguish itself. Aidan spun on his heel, left hand raised defensively, already starting to cast Flame Jet again, his head whipping back and forth, scanning for targets. His right hand he cradled against his abdomen, trying to ignore the searing pain and the feeling of his hot blood oozing between his fingers and down his wrist.

Aidan relaxed when no more monsters jumped at him. He looked down at his injured hand and cursed. Blood covered every inch of skin, and he could see the glint of white bone in more than one of the deep gashes. To make matters worse, looking at it brought the pain to the forefront of his mind, and Aidan wobbled on his feet, suddenly lightheaded.

Brighid caught him by the armpits as he started to fall and carefully lowered him to the ground. She poured water from her waterskin over his hand, making Aidan hiss in pain, and said, "Damn it, that is a nasty injury. I can stop the bleeding, but you might lose the use of your hand entirely. Fire Magic is not well-suited to healing. Do you have anything that might work better than me cauterizing the wound?"

"Maybe," Aidan grunted, fighting back the urge to scream and curse. "I have one Life Magic spell, but it only fixes minor wounds."

Brighid groaned and confirmed his suspicion by saying, "That is no Minor Wound. Alright, this is going to hurt. I am sorry for that."

"Wait!" He gasped out before she could cast her spell. "I also have healing potions in my backpack, in the box. Let me try one of those first."

Brighid reached into his backpack and pulled out the Chest of Holding then opened it. "What?" She sounded terribly confused. "It is empty, Aidan. Did you hit your head as well? I cannot do anything if you have a concussion!"

"Just give it here," he ground out through clenched teeth. "It's magical, dunno if it'll work for you." With an anxious expression on her face, Brighid set the open chest on Aidan's stomach. He reached inside and selected one of the healing potions, causing Brighid to gasp in surprise when he pulled it out of nothingness. He fumbled with the cork stopper for a moment, then poured the syrupy concoction into his mouth. As its description promised, it tasted like cherry soda.

Almost immediately, a cooling sensation flooded Aidan's body and concentrated on his hand. He watched, fascinated, as the deep gouges in his skin started to close. They didn't seal up entirely, however. After a few seconds, the chill left his hand, and what had moments ago been ragged bone-deep wounds were now angry red tears in his skin. He was still bleeding, but it was a trickle now, and real-world experience told him that they would scab over within an hour or so.

"Try your spell now. Minor Wounds are not anything to worry about, but if you have the means to fix it, you may as well." Brighid suggested. Lacking any counter-argument or any reason to argue, for that matter, Aidan began to cast. A marbled green-and-gold aura surrounded his hands for the ten seconds of chanting. Then, it streamed into the cuts, and within five seconds, everything was back to normal. There wasn't even any lingering pain. He marveled as his newly-unblemished skin for a moment, then his adrenaline crashed, and he fell to his knees, trembling.

This isn't supposed to hurt so much! Aidan thought to himself. That should have felt like a sprain or a bad bruise; IVR pain transmission is strictly regulated. There's no way the devs don't know about this. What the fuck? He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Brighid's sympathetic face.

"First combat?" She asked, not unkindly. "And first dangerous Wound, I would bet."

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Aidan nodded, still shivering. "What were those things? They look like dire rats." They resembled rats the size of a Collie or other dog on the smaller side of large, except that shark-like teeth filled their mouths, and a series of diamond-shaped boney plates lined their spines.

"That is as good a name for them as any," Brighid agreed. "We call them Argyl Rattoks. They are pack hunters, but not as intelligent as wolves. That is both a blessing and a curse, for wolves would never have attacked us, but the rattoks focused most of their attention on me because they are attracted to shiny objects." Aidan looked and, sure enough, there were seven or eight rattok corpses scattered around in the grass ahead of him.

"I am sorry, Aidan, twice over. First, because I was too absorbed in my thoughts to notice them sneaking up on us, and second, because I should have formed a party with you before now. I can, at least, correct that second mistake." A window popped up in Aidan's vision.

He hit the Accept button, and instantly a small panel appeared at the corner of his vision displaying Brighid's name and Health, Stamina, and Concentration bars. He could also feel her direction and distance from him, which was a strange sensation.

"If I had done that earlier, as I should have, you would have received 750 experience from that fight instead of 200. Losing that experience would not affect me, but an extra level might mean the difference between life and death for you." She sounded almost morose.

"It will be alright," Aidan tried to reassure her, shakily climbing to his feet. "You've corrected your error, and I took no lasting damage. Besides, I was just as distracted by my thoughts as you were, and I would bet you a kiss against my remaining healing potions that both of us were thinking similar thoughts. I think we need to talk." He winced internally at saying those particular words.

Brighid studied him for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "You are right, we do. But let us talk as we clean ourselves off; we have already lost enough time today."

"Before we do that, is there any value to these rattok corpses? Bone plates for armor, that sort of thing?"

Brighid shook her head. "The bone crests have some value, but mostly because they are time-consuming to remove. They are part of the creatures' spines."

Aidan nodded. "Yeah, I can see how that would be a pain. Alright, I just didn't want to leave anything valuable behind. I don't exactly have any marketable Skills unless you know some centaur women incredibly desperate for sex."

"Have I not already told you?" Brighid teased him. "I refuse to recommend you to my friends. Now, stop delaying and come on." She suited action to words and headed to the creek.

They did their best to clean the blood off, although Brighid's gleaming mail didn't need any help. Aidan had to scrub his armor several times, and even then, the blood had soaked into the leather, leaving discolored splotches. At least Brighid had similar problems with the wood of her glaive. Contrary to Brighid's announcement that they would talk as they cleaned, though, neither of them spoke. Aidan took the time to glance at the new prompts which had appeared during the fighting and the immediate aftermath.

Finally, after their journey resumed, Brighid broke the silence. "This morning..." she started, then hesitated before continuing, "you could have mounted me. I would not have stopped you; at the time, I wanted you to, desperately. Now, I do not know what to think. Were you only toying with me? I do not understand why you would stop when there was a naked, aroused, willing female right in front of you. Is it because I am a beastkin? I could feel your arousal, though..."

Aidan sighed and corralled his thoughts before responding. "First, it has very little to do with your race. I do confess to a degree of performance anxiety; after all, I am nowhere near the proportions of a horse."

Brighid snorted and interrupted him. "That is not a problem; neither are centaurs, and thank Braihan for that. Believe me, you measure up quite well."

"Well, that's a relief, I suppose. Brighid, you are stunningly beautiful. All of you, not just your human-like parts. I know I was unbearably rude when we first met but seeing you completely scrambled my brain. I have never been as sexually attracted to anyone as I am to you. You are also one of the very few of your people who treated me like an actual person rather than a giant pile of shit that fell out of the sky."

He inhaled deeply then let out his breath in another sigh. "I just don't know where I stand. I don't know if what I feel for you is real or just a result of the mix of sexual attraction, your unusual friendliness, and being alone with you for an extended period. I don't know if you feel the same sorts of things for me that I feel for you. I don't know if, should we become lovers, your people would accept it or if we would have to hide our relationship. I don't know if a relationship with you is something that could last long-term. In short, I am conflicted. Also, I should add, the very fact that you said that you wanted me in the heat of the moment but weren't sure now means that you maybe weren't willing, just overly aroused."

Brighid didn't respond for so long that Aidan was worried he had genuinely upset her. Eventually, though, she let out a sigh of her own. "You think too much, and you are making me think too much. Now I have to consider all of your doubts and add them to my confusion." She growled and kicked a small stone with one of her forelegs. "Why does it have to be complicated? I am a female; you are a male. I allowed you to touch me, play with my body, and lift my tail. Let the questions answer themselves."

She groaned and shook her head. "I am not used to considering all of the consequences. If I want to do something, I do it. If I do not, I do not. I have never wanted to be mounted the way I did earlier, but your words make me wonder if I would have regretted it afterward. Your touch enflamed me beyond reason and sense, and I was not thinking clearly. Do not mistake me, Aidan, I have grown to care for you. You are a friend, more than a friend; part of me craves your touch even now. But you are right; we do not know each other very well."

She hesitated a moment. "I propose an arrangement: for the duration of the way to Ceallach Macht, we will both refrain from inflaming the other's arousal. I will not tease you with my body, and our baths will be kept strictly functional. You will keep your magic hands to yourself. However, we should try to learn more about each other. I ... desire to be closer to you, Aidan, but I want to do it the right way instead of charging blindly, for once. Are you ..." She swallowed, then tried again. "Is that acceptable to you?"

Aidan sought out her hand and held it in his, squeezing softly. "It is. I would be happy to learn more about you and, hopefully, become much closer. I hope you do not mind if I spend a few minutes to myself after our baths, however. I am still not used to sharing a bath with someone so gorgeous."

"Yes," Brighid agreed solemnly, squeezing his hand back. "It would be wise of you to keep your sword well-polished; you might need to use it one day soon."

Aidan chuckled and shook his head to himself. She only promised not to tease him with her body, after all, and he did leave the door wide open for her.

Zurai

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