Chapter 13: Chapter 10

Nap. A simple word, three letters and it usually meant much for me. It was a time when my body could rest, a time where my brain could do whatever it wanted and where I refuelled my energy. So why in gods name, did I feel like I haven’t slept in days? Everything, absolutely everything frustrated me, although Hannah and I spent the whole day communicating through gestures of simple pictures we made on the ground. It was such a great day, and yet I was so frantic the very next day?

What made it even worse was that I was incredibly thirsty. My throat felt like it was completely dry and I had absolutely nothing to drink. Even worse, she ate a meal right in front of me and drank water from a flask. I was basically drooling, but she didn’t care to share anything. She blocked off every attempt to get something and damned me to live with my thirst.

I didn’t really want to fight for some water and guessed that she must have some reason for her behaviour, but I was so thirsty. And so, I leaned over to her, grabbed the flask and pulled with all my strength which wasn’t exactly much. She held onto it but was surprised nonetheless.

“Stop! This isn´t for you!” As if I couldn’t guess that. I continued pulling the flask until we were basically both rolling on the floor with the precious water in between us. Neither of us wanted to let go and I didn’t care as two male humans approached us through the tunnel. But she did and left me with the flask on the ground while she straightened her clothes.

Apparently, there was a need to look appropriate in front of these two guys, so I may have given them the worst first impression I could possibly do as I laid on the ground and greedily drank the water. The taste of it was … well, it was water so I didn’t expect anything, although it could have been a bit less stale. On the flip side though, it didn’t help at all. Flabbergasted, I looked deep into the once full brown flask, only to find droplets of water left.

Meanwhile, the three of them were staring at me. Hannah was completely perplexed while the two newcomers had different reactions. I didn’t look at them closely before, but now I kind of had to because of their exaggerated reactions. A sixteen-year-old boy clad in dark leather armour stared at me in disgust. That teenager was probably the reason why Hannah hurried up after noticing them, but he wasn’t the reason why I warily watched the duo.

I could only see the person beside the boy as a guard. He had quite a few muscles, a scar on his face and was otherwise completely clad in metal armour. He was extremely suspicious of me, visible for everyone to see by the glare he gave me. The sword he pointed at me certainly helped in identifying his stance towards me as well though. There was no mistake. Something I haven’t noticed about me made others suspicious of me. Hannah stepped in between us, but without any intention to fight him.

“She isn´t what you think she is. Look, she can drink water!” I was quite stupefied and hat to give my best to hide that fact. I couldn’t understand how drinking water made me less suspicious, but the man seemingly relaxed and sheathed his sword as soon as Hannah gave me a second flask and I gulped everything down in one go. I was horrified that I was able to drink that much and still be thirsty. It was a mystery to me how I would be able to survive with this thirst and so I thought that I was caught in another trap by the god.

“We asked for one guide to show us around in this sinking prison, not a guide and a child.” While I pondered about these words by the guard, I watched both of them carefully. The teenager was certainly not in a good mood. With disgust, he looked at both of us as if we were insects. It made me quite furious to see that, but even worse, he threw a silver coin in the dirt before Hannah. He was definitely paying less than he should, considering Hannah´s reaction, but she didn’t complain and rather picked up the coin carefully and gave it to me. “I hope she doesn’t stand in our way.” I didn’t like this guy at all as he was quite unfriendly, rude and already got on my nerves.

“She will carry the loot. She grew up with the elves, so she doesn’t know the human language yet.” The boy spit on the ground as she said that while his guard seemed more nonchalant than anything else. I on the other hand was quite stupefied. I could have sworn that I knew what an elf was, but as soon as I thought about it some more, my head started to hurt quite a bit. Even when I didn’t think about it anymore, headaches were still plaguing me for several seconds. I didn’t pursue my lost knowledge further, in particular, because the two newcomers were already looking at me strangely and Hannah was nowhere to be seen.

I sat completely still, wondering how much time actually passed while my brain was flooded with pain and was quite happy as Hannah came back with two backpacks, one more stuffed than the other. Not only was I apparently their pack mule, but she also dared to give me the heavier one. I barely managed to stand up with this thing on my back and even the guard seemed to wonder if I was alright with this thing on my back. Hannah seemingly not cared that much, although she gave me a few concerned gazes as I was struggling to stand upright.

How did anyone think that this was alright? Where was my police? Where was child protection? And why did nobody chime in to protest against this child labour? Humpbacked, I followed them as they started to walk away from their base, still thirsty and grumpy. I was so short of getting out of this place, but now I willingly threw myself back into it, just because my hope of escaping was apparently a guide that provided sightseeing trips for some stupid rich boys.

Except they weren’t really sightseeing. The guard turned out to be a capable fighter and I nearly forgot to keep my mouth closed as he smashed a stone crab into two pieces, just a few minutes after we set out. Hannah was also quite good but in no way close to the guard. The teenager on the other hand viewed the spectacle from the backline and put me in between the fighters and himself. It was nice to know that I had a meat shield behind me though.

I on the other hand was suffering silently. My thirst nearly drove me insane and I just had to wonder how I should ever still that. Hannah certainly had a solution, but either she wasn’t willing to help me, or she didn’t have it on hand right now, because she absolutely knew what was going on. The incident with the water flasks should have been a clear indicator and she even gave me concerned looks from time to time. So I kept struggling, hoping that I was saved from this thirst soon.

After the crab that was honestly a small fry for the guard, we didn’t see a monster for several minutes. While the teenager had a smug smile on his face and tried to avoid getting dirty as much as possible, Hannah and the guard were walking up ahead. The chemistry of this group was horrible and the cooperation between our frontline fighters was barely there. Our backline was even worse with the guy behind me always looking at me disgusted. I finally exploded in anger and frustration as the teenager pushed me as I was lagging behind.

“Walk any slower and I´ll kill you, dirty half-blood.” I tried to keep calm, I tried to forget my unstillable thirst, I really tried to be nice. But this guy was in a completely different league if it came to making someone angry. I shortly considered punching him right there, but then remembered that I shouldn’t choose right now. Instead, I opened my palm and saw the silver coin, waiting to decide this guys fate. I flipped it, eyed the result suspiciously and began walking again. Luck was on his side.

A few seconds later, he was already bickering about our dirtiness again and made our all lives miserable by complaining constantly. The guard was already accustomed to his behaviour, but Hannah was at her wits end as well. She constantly had to step between us because he was harassing me basically every second. I would be glaring at him constantly if I didn’t need to carry such a heavy backpack.

For some reason, the guard stopped at some point and urged us to go forward quickly. He positioned himself behind the boy, making our frontline even thinner. There was absolutely nothing whenever I looked back, but he must have had a reason. Hannah looked back as often as I did, but for a completely different reason. She looked at me concerned and probably checked if I was still walking and not strangling the teenager behind me.

The thirst, the teenager, walking without any apparent reason and seeing my key to freedom right in front of me, yet being unable to turn it was the worst. At some point, I ignored the coin flip and pushed the teenager away from me as he once again threw a pebble at me. He fell, but in such a way that even the guard behind us had to be on my side. Props up for his acting, but he convinced nobody, and yet that apparently didn’t matter at all. The guard approached me swiftly and I soon felt a cold blade pressed against my neck as I was still glaring at the teenager who held his knee.

“She attacked me! Punish her at once!” The boy obviously accused me of something I didn’t do and even tried to whine in front of me. While the fall wasn’t very good acting, he certainly had talent as a professional crybaby.

Hannah was holding her dagger, still wary about our surroundings, but way more focused on the guard.

“This is neither the place nor the time to fool around.” I apparently wasn’t the only one fed up with a certain behaviour and ready to start a fight. We would certainly go down if we fought against the guard, but nobody cared about that anymore as soon as we heard wolves howling in the distance. I shuddered, remembering my latest death very clearly.

“We have company.” Was the guard for real or did he need to make sure that even the dumbest of us understood that we were in danger? Hannah and he positioned themselves in front of us, while the teenager tried to use me as a meat shield. I didn’t know why he was here in the first place, but I guessed that it was something along the lines of gathering experience. I put my backpack on the ground and waited for the wolves to appear.

It was five of them and I knew that this was a bad sign as soon as I saw Hannah trembling in fear. I didn’t understand instantly, but I soon understood as sharp ice shards were flying towards us. The shards harmlessly shattered as some kind of glowing shield appeared in front of the guard. Although the wolves looked quite normal, they certainly made the temperature in the tunnel drop a few degrees just by their presence and were larger than the wolves I knew of.

The first one tried to ram into the guard but was cleanly split in two by the large sword. His remains slid over the ground for a few metres until it finally came to a halt. Meanwhile, Hannah rammed her dagger right through the throat of one wolf but struggled to kill it directly. Both the wolves that were still running towards us were quite taken aback by the sight but still continued towards us, probably sensing the easy prey cowering behind me. The guard immediately tried to cover for Hannah but was unable to block the path of the two wolves completely. One of them ran past him, leaving his comrade behind to deal with the guard.

Three metres past the guard, he was preparing to jump at me. I felt like I was back in purgatory with a spear approaching me fast. I wouldn’t claim that I was good at dodging, but this wolf seemed to be so slow in comparison to the spears that I had a grin on my face as I managed to evade it without issue. My training, although rather short, was undeniably the decisive factor in triumphing over the wolf.

The teenager behind me though didn’t seem to know how to move at all and rather stared at the approaching wolf dumbly. It felt incredibly satisfying as the wolf hit the boy and slammed him towards the ground. He wasn’t instantly dead and somehow managed to push the wolf´s teeth away from his throat. The claws still must have hurt quite a bit as they ripped open his leather armour easily.

I found myself staring at the scene more than I should have. It was a sight to behold as he finally felt the frustration and the pain I felt until then. He screamed loudly as his side was hurt by the wolf quite badly. Blood gushed out of the wound and a sweet scent instantly filled the surroundings. I didn’t care about what would happen to me afterwards, this moment was just way too satisfying as I wanted the teenager to die quite badly.

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“Lucinda!” I snapped out of it nearly instantly. The emotions I felt just a second ago vanished and were replaced by fear and the knowledge that I wasn’t a person who would let others die in front of her. Life was too precious to waste it like that, so I kicked the wolf as hard as I could. While it didn’t have the desired effect of throwing it off the teenager, he certainly struggled to rip open the boys' side even more. A dagger came flying afterwards and directly hit the wolves left paw. I kicked the wolf once more and he finally fell over onto his side.

Finally finished helping the teenager, I looked towards him. While my reaction was not the same as it was previously, it was still way colder than it should have been. It didn’t touch me one bit that I was looking at a boy who was dying right in front of me, but rather found myself smiling slightly. My thirst was driving me insane at this point and just by looking at him, I became even thirstier.

I reached out towards the boy but snapped out of it once again as a sword cleanly calved through the neck of the wolf. I stumbled backwards and despaired at what I was about to do. I fell backwards and sat against the wall, knees to my ears. This god already twisted me to such a degree that I was basically unable to control myself. Whatever this weird thirst was, I absolutely hated it, but that wasn’t even the worst part. The satisfaction I felt as the boy was attacked was certainly not linked to my thirst, but rather my character. Did I even know who I was at that point? My memories and my character seemed to portray me more and more like two different persons.

Sure, I managed to keep my cool as we died, but is that enough to stay composed in front of a god? Why was I depressed over mediocrity back then, but now I wasn’t completely despairing over my hopeless situation, but rather tried everything out that I could? It felt like he gave me a completely new character that absolutely didn’t fit with my precious memories. I went through how I perceived myself now and how I was in my memories for several minutes. Everything didn’t add up, from the beginning to the end.

“Lucinda?” My world was breaking down around me, but Hannah gave me something to cling to. She believed in me as nobody else did and gave me a hand as everyone else rejected me. Still, it was quite hard to take this hand at that moment. As I looked up, my eyes weren’t drawn to Hannah, but rather the boy that was still laying on the ground with a wound that healed slowly but surely by itself. She moved in between us and forcibly put a drinking hose in my hands.

“Drink that.” Without any second thought, I gulped down the fluid. Its taste was quite good, although I had nothing else to compare it to. It tasted incredibly exotic and I noticed how my thirst abated nearly instantly, completely unlike from the water before. Just a single drop of this fluid escaped my lips, but this single drop changed everything.

This drop explained why Hannah wasn’t able to sate my thirst previously and it also explained why she took several minutes to get here after defeating the wolf. As soon as I wiped it away with my hand and saw its colour, I also realized why it was so bright as I woke up and why I was so fascinated with the wound of the boy. It was red, the colour of my iris and my food.

I wasn’t the only one who saw the colour though. Besides me and Hannah, the guard saw it as well as he already finished healing the boy. It took him a second to put everything together, but he definitely found out the truth. Hannah must have realized as well because she twirled around and stood protectively in front of me. My short journey here on this planet was over once again, but she didn’t want to admit that yet. She even had her dagger in hand, ready to fight the guard who was quite surprised by her reaction.

“She is a vampire.” With sword already drawn, he stood in front of her, just a few metres apart. This was exactly that kind of situation the me in my memories would want to avoid at all cost. I didn’t what a friend of mine to die for me and would rather take on the burden myself if there was no other way.

“She saved me! I won’t abandon her.” She was determined, but not quite as much as I was. Helping me would certainly ruin her, so I chose the only sensible thing to do here. After standing up, I gently reached out to her dagger holding hand and slowly forced her hand down. While she resisted in the beginning, she gave up after several seconds as she understood what I wanted to do. I wouldn’t allow her to risk her life for me. I already realized that I lost to the god, so if she was the last person I could save before he completely twisted my character, then I would gladly do so.

“Please, she –“ She started begging for my life, but was soon interrupted by the guard himself who was quite furious that she tried to help someone like me.

“No. She will die. The only question is if you want to face the consequences of your actions or if you deal with this problem yourself.” As soon as he noticed that I wasn’t like him, the little sympathy he had for me vanished. He was cruel, but I didn’t blame him considering what I became.

“I won't murder her, and neither will you!” Somehow, she managed to motivate herself a bit and was raising her dagger again, ready to fight for my sake. I knew that I found a friend with her, a friend that I dearly wanted to keep but was unable to do so. I was strangely happy as I walked around her and saw her crying. I smiled as I took her hand and slowly placed the dagger right over my heart.

“I can´t … I´m sorry that I failed you.” Failed? I couldn’t believe what she was uttering. She gave me hope, she was my light in the darkness that I would lose and with it, my path out of this situation. I knew for a fact that the god wouldn’t give me another chance like this. And if I strayed from the right path … I suddenly knew what I had to do. I couldn’t die just like this. I needed to die in a very specific way and gave my hardest to think about how and where I needed to die in this place. I tried to remember every word I heard so far, every place I have been to and every piece of information I knew about this place.

My journey began in a tunnel where it led me towards an underground ravine. Was there anything helpful there? There was. Lots of water was flowing down the side and this water had to go somewhere. If it didn’t, then this place would be filling up with water, perfectly what I needed. It would also explain the first words of the guard where he mentioned that this was a sinking prison. Now, I just had to make that second part come true for me and I would ruin every plan the evil god had.

I let go of her hand, walked towards the coin I dropped earlier and flipped it. This time, luck was on my side. It took me another minute to put the words together that I heard previously.

“Prison. Bring me. Sinking.” I looked towards the guard while I said that, knowing that Hannah wouldn’t listen to me. He was quite surprised as I spoke to him and obviously struggled with comprehending what I said, but still managed to grasp something from these words.

“Pombären oder Chips? Schreibts in die Kommentare und vergesst nicht zu liken!“ Unsurprisingly, I completely lost all ability to follow their conversation as my translation ability was taken from me. I turned around and tried to smile reassuringly towards Hannah, which was quite hard to do. They still argued for several minutes and I heard my name multiple times, but all I could do was to hope that Hannah would give in. Luckily, she did exactly that after quite some time and reluctantly cuffed my hands. We were walking back towards the base, with me and Hannah in front and the other two following closely behind. Luckily, no monster attacked us and we arrived there safely.

After dropping off the boy there, we walked another path, leading to a never-ending staircase. Now was my chance to flee as I had the best chances to find an exit this way, but I had no intention of doing so, and would probably be killed by the guard behind me.

After ten minutes, we arrived at a floor that was filled with water to the ankles. The smell was quite foul and I quickly noticed the reason why. Dead animals were lying around here, probably unable to survive because of the water for whatever reason. Hannah led us to a hallway that was definitely built by mankind. Whoever build this prison here didn’t shy in making the prison doors durable. There were even some keys inside some of the locks which made it seem even more as if this place was still used a few years ago.

After the guard checked a cell and confirmed that the door locked properly and was unbreakable for someone like me, I was led into the room. He slammed the door shut, turned the key and stored it away in his backpack. One last time, he eyed the prison door suspiciously, but then left quickly to look after the teenager.  

Hannah didn’t leave though. She continued to speak to me, but sadly I couldn’t understand her at all. After quite some time, we both sat against the wall, holding hands while an iron barrier separated us. I couldn’t bear the silence after some time anymore as it was too sad. So I told her my whole story, from when I was born till this point, naturally in my own language. She obviously understood nothing, but I did hope to convey that my life didn’t always consist of the crushing sadness I felt in this cell. As soon as I was done, she started to talk, possibly about her own life as well. It was far longer than mine apparently because she needed to eat and drink multiple times while she told me her story. It certainly had its ups and downs as well and she even had to pause for an hour because she just couldn’t continue explaining a rather difficult part.

I noticed that I grew weaker over a day and the thirst soon returned. I hated every aspect of this, especially as I noticed that I was gripping her hand tighter than I should. She stopped talking, looked over her shoulder and saw me as I was crying. If this would continue, I would certainly thirst after her, something that I absolutely couldn’t bear.

She knew what I was feeling and after quite some time of silence, she slid the dagger into the room while looking away. I could hear her sobbing and tightened my grip around her hand once more. Looking downwards, I saw the dagger that saved her life at least once and gripped it tightly with my other hand.

“Thank you for everything.” She cried even more as I started to loosen my grip around her hand and I slumped against the prison door. I didn’t want her to see what I have done to myself and thankfully, she never turned around to look, but still made sure to hold my hand, possibly to show me that I wasn’t alone. With a smile on my lips and a true friend nearby, I left this world once again, this time with the knowledge that whoever I became, there would be someone who cared about me. And this was something that I desperately needed.

 

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