Chapter 4: Ch 4- Quiet rustling

She felt cold, her skin chilled by a shrill wind coming from everywhere from all at once.

She felt sick, her stomach pressing upwards into her lungs like she had just stepped off a cliff and begun to tumble into the ravine below.

She felt dizzy, her mind twisting erratically but her eyes noticing no change in the world around her.

 

It was dark, and she was falling.

No, not falling… Sinking.

She tried to move, to surface above the liquid and save herself, but her limbs lagged sluggishly behind her command as if she was swimming in tar.

She tried to breathe, but her chest refused to expand and take in anything because it was being compressed from every direction.

She tried to remember how she got in this situation, but her mind could not tear itself from the present fear and confusion she felt.

 

Over time, she pulled her knees in close with great effort and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face into both as she huddled into a ball. 

She still had a little bit of warmth left, which she now tried her hardest to cling to and trap and focus on entirely.

Maybe if she ignored what was going on; all of it, it would simply go away.

Kalia woke up suddenly with an embarrassing squeal, practically leaping to her feet before her eyes were even fully open. She was practically drenched to the skin and had a horrible headache.

Blinking furiously, she cleared her eyes of sleep and water enough to begin to see her surroundings.

The sky was brighter than it had been before and the air carried a slight chill.

Morning? She thought.

Around her was her party, standing in a semicircle and looking rather surprised. Thomas was also there right in the middle, but he wore a more gleeful look than the rest.

“Nice! Pay up guys.” He chirped, and both Angela and Davy begrudgingly handed him a Mid each that he quickly dropped into his coin purse.

 

“I really don’t see why you won that, ya squirt. We’ve known her a thousand times longer than you have and this is the first time that worked.” Davy groaned, Kalia finally becoming conscious enough to recognize what the empty bucket in his hands meant.

 

“You colossal bitch!” Kalia yelled, taking a step towards Davy and flicking off some of the water at him. “The hell did I do to deserve that?”

 

Slowly as Kalia spoke, her senses began to come back online once after another. Her throat was dry, her head hurt almost as badly as when she had hit it yesterday, and she could practically feel every one of her digits throbbing as her heart beat.

She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the light, which seemed much brighter than it usually did.

 

“I mean, you did pass out before the first night watch had even started, which as you may recall, was yours.” Codrin chimed in, halting Kalia’s approach.

 

“Uhhhgg.” A guttural noise came from Kalia. “Why didn’t’cha just douse me back then?”

 

“We did.” Bellowed the mountain called Davriel. “Several times. That’s what we paid Thomas for. He bet that it would work this time.”

 

She grunted with a touch of shame to her voice that lingered for a brief moment.

“And you didn’t get in on the easy bet, Coddy?” She addressed her party’s leader.

“I thought you loved being right?”

 

“Please, even for odds that good I won’t gamble.” Codrin scoffed with a dismissal wave of his hand.

 

“What, you’re just gonna lie to my face like that?” Kalia huffed. “I know I’m not the most observant person, but you’d think I’d have picked up on your habits at least a bit over the last ten years. Certainly after what happened last month.”

 

Codrin’s gaze shifted subtlety afar from hers, but he still leaned in slightly to deliver a message that wouldn’t reach anyone else’s earshot.

“… I didn’t want to cheat Thomas out of pocket money. He’s a good kid.” He admitted.

 

“Oh my. How cute. You look like a puppy who just got caught pissing indoors.” Kalia mocked in a tone less gleeful than usual. “I’m roughly the same age as him and you don’t have any problems robbing me blind at Sellish ante.”

 

“That’s because you deserve it.” He said with shit-eating grin worthy of a dung beetle.

 

Just as Kalia was about to shoot back at him, Angela interjected with a forceful clearing of her throat. 

“If you two could finish up your bickering soon, help would be appreciated for packing up camp. I’m sure having Kal as a helping hand rather than another piece of cargo will get us going a bit sooner than usual.”

 

“Right, right, yeah.” Kalia said, cradling her temple to try and soothe its throbbing.

“Fuckin- what do you want me to do then?”

 

Every member of her party stared at Kalia for a moment with eyes slightly widened until the silence was ultimately interrupted by a question from Davy.

 

“Are you feeling ok?” His voice came laced with an amount of legitimate care that Kalia was entirely unused to.

 

For some reason, the question really annoyed Kalia. At that moment He had seemed like an intrusive younger sibling asking about something absurd and nonsensical.

 

“No!” She cried out before she could stop herself. “Everything aches and the sun’s too bright and you guys are being too loud and I’m still tired! But none of that even matters anyway since I’ll be fine in a few minutes!”

 

The silence continued, now joined by Thomas, whose eyes were darting between her teammates to try and gather some sort of information from their expressions about what was going on.

 

“Holy shit!” Davriel exclaimed after what seemed like a minute. “Kalia’s hungover!”

————

 

The road had now narrowed and to the point where the convoy had to travel in a single file, but unfortunately for Kalia, it hadn’t gotten any smoother.

She tried to make it better, riding on bundles of furs and stuffing her ears with the fingers of a pair of wool gloves, but the sensation of motion still rattled her head like a concussion.

 

The cart rattled over every single pebble, sending vibrations through Kalia’s body that she could hear even with her hands clamped firmly over her ears. The hairs on her arms were pulled and knotted by what little wind blew past, the light of the sun torched her eyes even through her eyelids, and the stench of the horse’s simply existing nearby threatened to sear her sinus’s shut. If this was what was awaiting Kalia the morning after just a bit of wine for the rest of her life, then she could never drink again.

 

“M’ sorry.” She groaned at the driver for the cart behind her as she lay on her back, suffering.

 

“Serves you right, ya harlot.” Came the gruff voice of Davy, evidently remembering the supituation a day previous when their rolls had been reversed.

“Both for yesterday and for making us look bad in front of our employers.”

 

“Mmmnsshhhhhhhhhhh! Don’ yelllll…” Kalia moaned in the unfun way. “Y’know this isn‘t sumthin that happens to me…”

 

“What, you getting royally messed up in front of a new boy-toy? You know as well as I do that it happens more than you’d like to admit.” Davy chucked. “Or maybe you’re just getting too old to drink without spilling your brain out of your skull.”

 

Kalia flinched at Davy’s last comment, a chill rushing through her as he offhandedly mentioned exactly what was really going on. She gulped with her dry throat, completing the trio of textbook nervous reactions as her handicapped mind spun with horrible possibilities.

Did he know? 

How? She hadn’t told anyone.

Did he figure it out somehow?

Certainly not! The Davy she knew couldn’t find his own cock in the dark!

Was it just an awkward coincidence then?

He was a smartass, sure; but he wasn’t so socially blind and heartless as to take a jab at someone’s imminent death. And he sure would be a lot more torn up at the prospect of losing his favorite drinking buddy.

 

No, there was no way in hell that he knew! He was a big friendly moron through and through! The type you’d only tell a secret if you wanted half the town to know it. If Davy had done the detective work to properly learn about the side effects of Kalia’s gift, AND kept them a secret from the rest of the party, AND made a distasteful comment on an affliction that was actively killing her at this very moment, then the only reasonable explanation would be that she was already dead.

 

“At least you finally get a bit of company on that curb you wake up on every other morning. Must have been really cold and lonely down there before I decided to join you.” She relented, not bothering to refute Davy’s claims of her advancing age.

 

“My hero.” Davriel cooed in the sultriest voice he could manage.

_____________

 

They reached tonight’s campsite later than they expected due to a bump that shattered one of the lead wagon’s wheels. Normally, it wouldn’t take too long to swap it out for one of the spares that they carried, but the cart’s entire structure had been damaged when its load became unsupported.

 

Repairs took a couple hours, and the hammering done still rang in Kalia’s ears like explosions. And while it had been slowly getting better, her hangover was still far from cleared up even by sundown.

 

Unfortunately for her, camp needed to be made as quickly as possible while the sky was still illuminated by the western horizon. Despite the headache, her assistance was still called upon to make the fire.

 

There would be no cooking or campfire stories tonight. With no time to hunt, this fire would be made solely for warmth and light to protect them from the chill mountain air that would drift down upon them come midnight.

 

After washing down travelers' biscuits with watered down wine and mead, the merchants and the other members of Kalia’s party tucked themselves into their bedrolls one by one until the only two left were her and Thomas. While she needed to stay awake for first watch, Thomas staying up with her perplexed her a bit. She didn’t think that had gotten close enough yet for him to start getting any fun ideas.

 

Come to think of it, there were a number of things about him that confused Kalia; chiefly among them was what he was even doing here in the first place.

 

“Hey, uh, not to pry into your private business stuff or anything, but all of those figurines and bronzework pieces that we’re moving are with you, right?” Kalia asked.

 

“Yep.” Thomas nodded. “Artifacts from this area of the frontier have been known to be made with high-quality inkstone on occasion. There were a couple designs Ms. Dona told me to keep an eye out for, and the rest I got just because making a profit off of flipping these things isn’t all that hard. Inkstone spoils when exposed to air and light, so the frontier settlements don't have any of the heavy equipment needed to extract it anyway.”

 

So what you're saying is that they have a chance at being really valuable, right?” Kalia asked to affirm a notion she was getting. “And because you have the guidance of a Syer, you’re basically cheating to sniff out the best ones.”

 

“Basically.” Thomas shrugged. “One of the reasons why they’re so rich I guess.”

 

“So then why are you getting them carted through a mountain range full of elves and beasts? Not only is it riskier than the long way around, but because of said risk the cost is about the same since guards like me need to be hired.” She said, pointing to her chest with a thumb. “Is the saved time really taking the chance with such a valuable item, not to mention yourself?

 

“Aha!” Thomas laughed lightly before leaning just a little closer to Kalia’s ear.

“You’re forgetting that I am an object that Syer Dona sought out as well! She knows that I have a destiny, and it’s one I’m destined to fulfill so matter what risks I take!”

 

“Ughh!” Kalia groaned. “Even more oracle shit. Don’t let it get to your head. Jumping off of a cliff is still gonna kill you.”

 

“Oh will it now?” Thomas half-scoffed.

 

Kalia smirked, taking a sultry glance at Thomas. “Do you trust her enough to find that out for yourself?

 

Just as it looked like an answer was going to leave Thomas’s lips, he stopped. A moment passed where Kalia could see a few thoughts swirling around behind his eyes.

 

“Do you have some sort of history with oracles? I ask because you seem to associate a greater deal of annoyance with them than I’m used to people having.” Thomas asked.

 

Kalia thought for a moment about his question. As far as she could tell, she had never met someone with a gift for telling the future. She didn’t want to, either.

 

“Eh, I don’t know…” Kalia said, breathing in sharply through her teeth. “I don't like the idea of someone knowing what I’ll do before I do it. Feels like they know more about me than I do.”

 

Thomas took a sip of his tea, finishing it and placing the cup behind him.

 

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s never really that simple. I can’t speak for all Syers, but Dona often spends hours a day deciphering and comparing her own visions. Most of what she sees is total nonsense.” Thomas said.

 

Kalia shifted how she sat, turning to face Thomas more directly.

 

“Why are you so goddamned nice, huh?” She asked, wrinkling her face slightly. “I’m beginning to resent having teased you now.”

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“Resent is unbecoming of you.” Thomas replied, head tilted upwards haughtily. “It sours your good looks even more than your attitude already does.”

 

Kalia’s pout evaporated as Thomas’s words set in, quickly becoming replaced with a giddy smirk more suited for a girl half her age.

“You’re learning!” She cried out a bit louder than was probably wise, quickly grabbing both of Thomas’s hands and pulling him to a position where they faced each other head on.

“It’s been only a day but you’ve already come so far!” She cried.

 

Thomas inadvertently recoiled at such a sudden movement, but did nothing to stop the woman from gazing into his eyes like Dona had when she had demanded he abandon his job for her own service.

Although, somehow he could feel like this gaze was a bit deeper…

 

“Erm, I suppose I’ve always been a bit of a fast learner…” he stuttered out, unable to break eye contact with the figure that was now only a foot in front of him.

 

“Y’know, I could give you a reward, if you wanted.” Kalia said with an excessively chipper grin.

“I’ve got my fair share of skill as well. It wasn’t fair that you’re the only one who gets to show off.”

 

“I- uh- emm-“ Thomas stuttered, a number of potential phrases dying on his tongue before they had left his lips.

 

“Look here, bookworm.” Kalia commanded. “That whole ‘thinking about your actions’ thing can be pretty cute in low doses, but you shouldn’t be overdoing it for your own sake. If you feel like you don’t want this or that I’m moving too fast, you shouldn’t be hesitating in telling me so. Feelings aren’t something that can be left to fester, good or bad.”

Kalia remained close, but let go of the young man’s hands; and the two of them sat for a few unflinching moments.

 

Thomas clenched one of his hands into a fist at his side and let out a shaky breath. His eyes relaxed slightly, but took on a sharpness that Kalia hadn’t seen before.

“I-”

 

He was cut off by Kalia placing her hand around his fist. The look in her own eyes had changed quite suddenly as well.

“I’m sorry that I have to interrupt us, but you should go hide or grab your wizard stuff. Something just moved in the woods behind you.” She whispered.

 

Kalia grabbed her thin sword from the ground and pulled a whistle carved from bone and hung from her neck out of her tunic. She practically tossed it from her hand to her mouth and blew as she lept upwards.

 

FWEEEEEEEEEET

 

The camp stirred quickly just as Thomas was beginning to process Kalia’s whisperings. He swung around as fast as he could, and found his companion to have already nearly reached the edge of camp.

 

Kalia’s eyes adjusted to the dark immediately, as such was the way of her gifted body. She had unhooked the scabbard from her belt in the name of comfort, so now it clattered on the dry ground as she withdrew her blade from it.

It was a narrow thing, suited to sliding between gaps in armor and slicing tendons more than hacking off entire limbs. She had named it Blackberry.

 

As she approached the edge of camp, she heard something rustle away from her in the undergrowth. Her hearing was certainly good, but it wasn’t quite enough to make an accurate guess on what had made the noise. 

She could only go on the noise made by a few snapping branches, which seemed to be large enough to suggest the source was vaguely close to human-sized.

 

Kalia ducked under the first layer of foliage and quickly paused to scan her surroundings, finding herself standing in a game trail that ran perpendicular to the road. Her gaze darted back towards the source of the rustling, which had left a wake of quivering branches behind itself as it had fled.

 

She had to act fast, and was off again a moment later; galloping as quickly as she thought was wise given the terrain. Branches swatted at Kalia’s face, leaving pale scratches on her skin, and her heart’s deep pounding covered her arms in goosebumps. She crested a hill and lept forwards off of it, catching the first glimpse of her target clambering over a large fallen log.

 

The figure was humanoid, and shorter than her by roughly 2 heads. It was wrapped in an asymmetrical cloak that was longer on its left side and had mid-toned skin similar to her own, although she couldn’t make out the exact colour in the dark.

It made a hurried glance back towards Kalia as it cleared the obstacle, but returned to running before she had a good chance to get a look at it.

 

Must be an elf of some sort. There’s no way a human child would be out here on the frontier side of the border mountains.

 

Kalia neared the path’s blockage, noticing that the area nearby was nearly free of obstructing branches and leaves. The tree must have cleared quite a bit of undergrowth on its way down. 

Perfect - Kalia thought, and sped up to a full sprint.

 

Tucking Blackberry directly through a belt loop, Kalia vaulted over the waist-high obstruction without a drop in speed, narrowing the gap between predator and prey by a substantial margin.

 

Kalia drew her sword after another dozen paces, now close enough to begin taking jabs at the elf’s legs to stop it.

 

One jab-

Caught only the elf’s baggy cloak.

 

A swipe-

Wasn’t deep enough to slow it down.

 

Another jap-

The elf let out a yelp that revealed it to be male and stumbled, crashing into brush as the trail made a slight right turn.

 

“Are you alone?!” Kalia asked pressingly as she moved to stand over the fallen elf.

 

The elf groaned in pain and began to crawl away from Kalia, who quickly moved to step on its cloak which she could now see was just a poorly tanned elk hide.

 

“Are you a scout?!” Kalia asked again, even more firmly.

 

Not getting an answer, Kalia bent over and removed the elf’s hood, finding a matted mess of black hair underneath. Now that she could focus, she could see that the skin on its large and slightly outward pointed ears was greyish like dirty water. From the skin colour, body and ear size, and location they were in, she knew what race it was.

 

The elf was a goblin’s mule; an infertile crossbreed that often bore some of the better traits from either of its parent races; human in this case. Such a pairing would occur often enough that it had a name: Hobgoblin.

 

The hobgoblin turned its head back to get a look at Kalia, revealing that its face was both boyish and somewhat angular. A teenager. Probably around 8 or 9 years old given the race. It was thin as well, with sunken cheeks and eyes skin pulled tightly around its jawline. Its eyes were wide and wet with tears, and its mouth was hung open slightly. The half-elf was very scared of her.

 

At this point, it was quite obvious the hobgoblin couldn’t speak Darshen. In all likelihood, this meant that it had had little to no contact with civilization before and wasn’t part of one of the larger mountain tribes. 

Cragspeak was the next best bet to communicate with it, but Kalia was still in the process of learning it and did not have a very extensive vocabulary. Crag-speak was also a wild language, and as such, varied highly based on location.

 

“Do… you h- have… friends?” Kalia stuttered out in Crag-speak, entirely butchering a good portion of the nuance that the wild language had.

 

A little bit of the Hobgoblin’s fear was replaced by confusion as its moon-wide eyes squinted slightly at her, but it still made no effort to respond.

Perhaps it was understood at least slightly? Either way, the Half-elf was calming down slightly as it could see that Kalia was in no rush to make a killing blow.

 

Kalia sighed, and cupped an ear back in the direction of camp.

There were no sounds of battle, no yells, no pained screams.

She listened longer, and caught a few peaks of Davy speaking in his usual loud voice about something. He did not sound troubled.

 

“Alright little guy.” Kalia spoke, really just to show the Hobgoblin a non-threatening tone of voice. “I’m going to bring you back to speak with someone who can translate better, ok?”

 

Kalia had allowed herself to relax, slightly relieved that she hadn’t abandoned her party to an ambush.

 

Which was exactly what the Hobgoblin was waiting for.

 

Using its good leg to spring itself forward, the young Hobgoblin slipped out of its cloak; which was still pressed firmly against the ground by Kalia’s foot. It crawled briefly and began to stand up, but Kalia wasn't far behind.

 

She dove after it, snatching the Hobgoblin’s injured leg and drove it back to the ground with a thud. 

It kicked at her hand with its good leg, which would have been a fruitless effort if it weren’t for one thing. Kalia’s grip was slick with the Hobgoblin’s blood.

 

The leg slipped from Kalia’s grasp and the half-elf darted off the trail, this time using its smaller stature to try and lose Kalia through the thick brush.

 

Kalia rose, and looked at her hand smeared in the Half-elf’s blood.

It’s warm

She felt a chill run down her spine. Was she always this cold after she ran?

No, it made sense. Effort caused the body to burn up its stored heat. 

Everyone knew that.

Right?

 

The Hobgoblin’s blood warmed her skin and soothed her aches. Maybe she should-

 

Kalia’s other hand wrapped her blood-soaked one in the Hobgoblin’s shed cloak and her thoughts blanked out for a moment. What had she been doing?

 

She listened, but no rustling could be heard in the direction the Half-elf had fled. It was gone and she had lost it.

 

“Hey!” Angela’s voice came from behind her. “Are you alright?”

 

“Uh- I- Yea. I’m fine.” Kalia said, staring forwards at nothing in particular.

 

“What happened?” Angela asked, concerned.

 

“A hobgoblin stumbled into camp. Seemed to be tribeless and probably thought that we were elves. I had a scuffle with it but it slipped out of its cloak and managed to get away.” Kalia explained, finally managing to turn around to see Angela holding a torch on top of the small hill.

 

“Alright, well, Codrin hasn’t sensed any other minds around here except you and it. It isn't exactly the most ideal outcome to have it flee, but I’m glad that it didn’t hurt you.” Angela said.

 

Kalia huffed. 

“C’mon, you know better than to worry about me. Of course I’m fine!” She said dismissively.

 

“Right…” Angela said, rolling her eyes and turning back to camp; taking the torch with her.

 

Kalia stood in the darkness for a few moments, paralyzed without a thought in her head.

 

Slowly, she removed the elk skin from her hand and carefully glanced at it again.

The blood had gone cold.

 

Kalia chucked awkwardly, although she couldn’t tell what exactly she was laughing at.

She turned, and placed the coat on the crushed bush the Hobgoblin had landed on.

 

Here. Sorry for taking your coat. Hope you came back looking for it.

 

Kalia began walking back to camp. She had performed her duty to protect the convoy and could probably just make the excuse to end her shift here and go to bed.

She was tired, and she felt like shit.

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