Chapter 6: Corpse

Rodderick was sitting down inside the hole. It was completely dark, he couldn’t even see his knees as he was hugging them with his arms even though they should be right in front of his eyes.
He could hear Ember fighting outside, however, everything suddenly went quiet. 
He waited. Waited. He kept waiting. 
Something was wrong, why hasn’t Ember come back for him? Did she lose?
Tears started forming on his eyes, they have only spent one day together, but Rodderick had great affection for both Ember and Edeus, he wanted to spend his life learning the secrets of magic from both of them.

“Ember?” He asked quietly, unsure if his voice would even carry past the earth.
He wanted to know if the witch was okay, but he was afraid, if Ember lost, that meant the demon was out there, he was scared of being heard. Demons are man eating monsters, if one were to find him, he would be eaten on sight.

Rodderick started sobbing, embracing his knees harder. He was angry, if he had showed some talent with wind or earth, then maybe he would have learned a spell, maybe he could have helped Ember fight, but no, he was weak, powerless.

His mind took him through his memories, to the time when he was raised in an orphanage together with many other children.
Both his parents were soldiers, a common occurrence given how the town he was born in was so close to the front lines. Many people were conscripted in the army and sent to fight for the kingdom.
One day, a soldier simply came to his house stating that both his parent had died and that he would be translated to the orphanage.

The event broke Rodderick’s heart, their bodies never made it back giving him hope that maybe they were able to escape, that one day they would come and take him from the orphanage and that all of them together would come back to their home, but his parents never returned. 
The reality is that as demons devour humans, its not uncommon for bodies to never come back from the front.

Wars against the demons have lasted centuries, but the last 12 years have changed it’s course dramatically. Humans who were already on the defensive were being pushed back at a dramatic pace. This affected the life of every person who didn’t live in Whilmcaster, the capital of the kingdom which stood tall and proud, protecting by it’s giant walls and magical barriers. It’s inhabitants enjoying a relative peace.
On the outside however, especially affected were towns like Eldham, which were now only days away from the front lines.

War had become part of the daily life of every person, including the children, who would often play with wooden swords, having mock battles and going through light forms of military training.
However, just like with magic, Roderick didn’t display any talent with the sword, frustrated, he grew distant of the other children.

The orphanage, was full of children like Rodderick. Some, filled with a thirst for vengeance. Some wanted to become soldiers to go out and find their parents, deluded by the hope of finding them alive. Some wanted to join their family on the front lines. For others war was just the only path they had left. 

Despite the somewhat familiar backgrounds, Rodderick didn’t get along with any of the children. Raised by soldiers, he believed he should fight and defend his town, but after his parents death he felt fighting was meaningless. 
They were losing the war and there was nothing he could do to help, he felt powerless.

Once again he was drowning in the same negative feelings. He didn’t want to be useless any longer, if Ember was still alive and he could help her escape, even if he could only distract the demon for a second, he would be satisfied.
He stood up in the dark hole and pushed the earth over his head with his hands. But he was too weak, the earth was magically formed and wouldn’t easily budge at the push of a child.

“Move!” Rodderick pushed with all his might to no avail. But he wasn’t willing to give up, “Move, move move!”, Rodderick kept pushing, screaming with all his might, he no longer cared about the demon hearing him, all he cared for was getting out of the hole and helping his friends.
“MOVE!”

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BOOM.

With a loud explosion the earth over him was sent flying away, freeing Rodderick from his hole. He stood there in shock. The projectile he sent flying made a hole through the mud table that Edeus had raised. 
It was magic. Rodderick magically moved the earth.
“It worked…”, he looked at his hands, blinking a few times trying to process what just happened. “I actually used magic”. Rodderick shook his head to compose himself, it wasn’t the time for this.

He lifted himself out of the hole and crawled under the table making his way towards the door. 
The door was open, but there was no one inside. He had heard Ember close the door when she got out, meaning that someone had opened the door after the fight.
Rodderick nervously swallowed, the possibility of the demon having been right on top of him terrified him. He shook his head to recover and cautiously stepped outside.

 Outside was the body of Ember, lying flatly on a pool of blood. 
“No!” Rodderick ran towards the body of the witch. 
“Ember!” He hid his face on her chest, tears streaming on his face. It was too late, the fight was over before he could do anything. 
Suddenly, the corpse’s hand grabbed onto one of his arms, which made Rodderick scream in horror.

“W-What?!” Rodderick shook his arm wildly to shake off the corpse but it wouldn’t work, for a dead body it had an incredible grip strength.
He dragged himself backwards in desperation, but then the dead hand simply let go of him.
He kept dragging himself to a safe distance and then looked back. The body was sitting in place with no head.  Blood kept pouring from her neck in a gruesome sight.
He had heard stories of the undead before, corpses brought back to life by magic who much like demons, would devour anything on sight, however, he felt that wasn’t what he was seeing.

Ember’s body raised her arms and shacked her hands towards Rodderick, as if greeting him.
“Ember? Is that you? Are you….alive?”, it felt wrong asking her, however, the body was moving, it had to be a proof of something still living in there.
The body didn’t answer, it simply kept waving, then it stopped and tried standing up, however, her right leg was horribly damaged and it fell to the ground.
 As if giving up, the body just pointed towards the nearby woods with it’s right hand.

“Huh?”, Rodderick followed where she pointed with his sight. There was a trail of blood that disappeared inside the forest. Was that the path the demon took? Did she want him to follow it?
The body then raised her other hand and pointed towards the mud hut.

“Oh! I get it, you think I’m Edeus.”, she was pointing towards the forest for Edeus to go hunt the demon and towards the hut to rescue the buried Rodderick. 
“I guess you can’t hear without your head…”, Rodderick wasn’t sure how to communicate with the witch, so he simply rubbed her back.
She jumped as if surprised, and then gave Rodderick a big hug.

“Ewww!”, the hug brought Rodderick’s face closer to the gaping hole in Ember’s neck. It was a sight that made him want to vomit, one that he sadly would never forget.
After the hug the witch simply remained there, sitting, still pointing towards the forest”.
Rodderick sat there with her, unsure on what to do.

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