Death After Death

The first real problem came back up when Simon re-entered the forest to fight the Owlbear. Well - to hopefully not fight it, actually. If he didn’t need to fight any of this shit, then discretion seemed to be the better part of valor when the enemy was over eight feet tall and had claws that could rip him to shreds as far as he was concerned.

That monster stalking him through the woods wasn’t even the problem, though, it was that there were no obvious landmarks to guide him. Last time, it was only pure luck that he’d made it to the road and that terrible wreckage. What if this time he turned right when he’d turned left before, and ended up lost in the woods until he starved to death?

He’d done that before. More than once actually, he thought resentfully, and it hadn’t been any fun. With the crossbow and the fire spells, he thought he could make a better showing of it this time, but he’d much rather be exploring the Pit than one stupid forest inside it. The rain fell softly on Simon while he tried to remember what he’d done last time, but he couldn’t exactly, so he decided that he probably would have just gone straight.

A few minutes later he was rewarded with a distant shriek, which he took to be a good sign, so he kept going until the overgrown bird got too close for comfort, before hiding as far under a fallen log as he could wedge himself. The Owlbear stomped around the area for almost two minutes looking for him, and at one point even stepped on the tree that hid him, but fortunately the old lightning scarred trunk bore the weight of the raptor.

Last time Simon was in this moment he remembered bolting in a panic, but this time he very slowly slid out from under his hiding place and did his best to sneak off into the densest part of the underbrush he could actually squeeze through. He didn’t really want to just run and hope for the best. In his current situation, that seemed like a recipe for disaster, so he did his best to be as quiet as possible, and stayed on the lookout for the noises of that thing coming back.

Though the Owlbear got uncomfortably close a couple of times, Simon managed to avoid crossing its path before he reached the road. This time he noticed that he’d walked quite a bit farther than he had originally, and the wreckage of the wagons was only just visible at the next bend in the road.

Simon felt naked in the open without his trusty pike, but he drew his sword and kept his shield up in case of ambush. Fortunately, one never materialized, and he reached his goal. The clouds cleared up a bit as he got closer, but being able to see better did him no favors.

Both of the wagons were still wrecked, with one shattered, and the other one on its side. That wasn’t the problem, though. The problem was that the men and horses surrounded them hadn’t been butchered - they’d been shredded. Simon doubted he could have matched the bloodstained limbs to the body they belonged to if he tried.

Not that he would ever engage in such a gory pastime. This time he would take a minute to go through the more intact wagon, though. A water skin would be a nice score, if he could find one. He was feeling thirsty, and he still had half a dozen floors to get through before he would see new content.

Simon didn’t find a water skin, but he did find movement. As soon as he opened the canvas tarp in the back, he saw someone in the darkness move, and he jumped back, pointing his sword at them.

“Who’s… come out of there right now!” Simon yelled, before quickly looking around to see if the Owlbear might have heard that.

“I… I can’t.” a soft voice said so softly that Simon could barely hear it. “The monster will eat us if I do.”

Simon was puzzled by this response, and it took him a second to figure out that the voice belonged to a child. He shook his head. “Really, Helades? Fuck,” he swore under his breath. There were monsters in the forest, and she was bringing kids into this? Simon was starting to think that she was an evil goddess, not a good one like he’d originally thought.

Using the tip of his sword, he flipped the cover back, to make sure it wasn’t some weird ambush, but there was just a young boy that couldn’t have been much older than 12, and a slightly older girl, clinging together in fear. At first, Simon thought they were siblings, but when he noticed how fine his clothes were, and how simple the girl's were, he realized that it had to be more complex than that. Simon didn’t care about that, though. Answers could wait until he got them somewhere safe, not that he had any idea where that would be.

“Come on,” Simon said, “Both of you out right now. You can’t stay here.” He wanted to ask what happened, but that seemed too insensitive, so instead he just helped them out of the wagon, pulling them to the axel side, where the violence was less obvious.

The fair-haired boy was hesitant, and looked at him with undisguised fear, though Simon couldn’t figure out if that was because of the horrible things that had already happened to him, or if it was because he was a stranger with a sword. The girl, on the other hand, clung to him like her life depended on it.

Simon peeled her off him and then sheathed his sword as he told them both, “You two wait here. Don’t go wandering off or looking around. I’m going to get a weapon, and then we're going to find somewhere to get you two out of the weather.”

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“But you already have a weapon,” the boy said, confused.

“Not this one,” Simon said, turning to face him as he walked to where the huge pike lay on the ground. “I—”

It was almost over before it began. Simon caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, and he knew he’d never get his sword out in time. All he could do was point and pray as he shouted “G̴̝̈́͒͠ḛ̷͕̮̕͘r̵̛̫̮̔͠ͅv̴̿̀͠ͅu̷̝͚̜̎u̴͚͈̎ḻ̸̣̈́ ̸̦̟̜̈́̍M̷̪̹̪̓̓͒e̴̪̎i̴͓̗̔̔͆ͅr̸̹͓͚͐̅è̵̛͇̱̾n̴̩̜̍,” while he dove to one side.

Since he barely had time to imagine much more than this big ass bird on fire, the results were less than spectacular, but even so, a few streamers of powerful fire leapt from his hand, and judging by the ear-piercing shriek the thing made, Simon knew that at least one had landed. He didn’t look, though. He ran to the pike on the ground, and raised it before he could turn around to wield it.

It was lucky that he did.

No sooner did he have the spear end of the weapon off the ground somewhere behind him, than he was pushed forward by a sudden impact that sent him sprawling, and buried the butt of the weapon in the mud.

Simon expected to be killed before he could rise to his feet, but other than a little bit of sharp pain from his back, and dull pain from his knees, he was fine. The shrill screaming behind him told him the Owlbear didn’t exactly feel the same way, and Simon finally turned to see why.

The big dumb creature hadn’t been burned too badly by his fire spell, but it had obviously been enraged by it, because it had charged right into the pike, and now it had four feet of the weapon sticking out from behind it, while it shrieked in pain.

Simon pulled out his sword and approached it. They said that you weren’t supposed to approach an animal in pain, because it could lash out violently, but Simon didn’t care about that right now. He cared about what this thing was doing to his ears. It was like nails on a chalkboard.

“Sorry about this big bird,” he said as he swung his sword as hard as he could at the back of the thing’s neck with a vicious two-handed blow. He’d hoped to behead it, which would have been awesome looking, but as it was he at least severed the thing’s spinal cord mercifully enough to put everyone out of its misery.

When he finished that ugly business, Simon sheathed his sword and looked to make sure the children were okay. He saw a mixture of awe and fear on both their faces. “Everything’s going to be okay,” he said, trying to reassure them as he walked over.

The boy nodded eagerly, but the girl ran to him and started crying. He still had no idea how to cope with that, so he let her sob for a few minutes before he shook her loose.

“Come on,” he said, "We need to get out of here."

Both of them came easily enough after that, and he held hands with both of them while they left all the evidence of violence far behind them.

In the conversation along the way, the girl mostly relayed what had happened. They were traveling from the capital to Adonan for some festival that meant nothing to him. Apparently the boy was named Eddek, and he had to attend and give it his blessing because he was someone important, but when their wagon was attacked at night by monsters, all they could do was hide.

Simon listened, but mostly he just felt like shit that he’d left them in there the first time without saving them. Saving everyone wasn’t his job, of course, but these were just kids. The last thing that Helades should do was put innocents like that in her sick games.

Once the boy found his voice, he asked about the magic that Simon had wielded, but Simon didn’t have much to say.

“Is it demonic? Is it from the gods?” Eddek asked.

Simon just shrugged. “Who can say. It’s just a little trick I picked up.” He spent much of the walk trying to act like he knew what he was doing, but in reality, he was lost. He couldn’t take them to the bridge. He’d never be able to get them past the troll. Hell - he wasn’t sure how he was going to get past that brute without his pike. As a weapon it hadn’t been much, but it bought him a few precious seconds.

It started to rain again just before he caught sight of the mill. Simon started towards it. It still creeped him out a little because it looked like the location for some B horror movie, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and he was sure these kids would catch their death of cold if he didn’t get them somewhere warm and dry.

There was still enough of a fire burning in the hearth of the small home next to the mill that Simon could see a small amount of light through the shutters as he banged on the front door loud enough to wake whoever was sleeping in there.

They stirred only reluctantly after the second round of banging, and loudly shouted through the door, “I ain’t openin’ my door to strangers in the middle of the night!”

“That’s very wise,” Simon agreed, pushing the children forward even as he stepped back. “I wouldn’t either if I was you, but I’m going to go back to the road now, and someone needs to look after these kids I saved in the woods. If that’s not you, then I guess they’ll just freeze to death out here.”

“No, please don’t go,” the boy pleaded. “My father will give you a fine reward, and I’ll make sure to appoint you to the household guard if you just stay and—”

“You hear that?” Simon said, shaking his head at Eddek’s fine offer, even as continued to move back. “This kid’s dad is rich, and you’ll be well rewarded if you take care of them until the rest of their party catches up with them!”

Both children came running towards him, and Simon knelt to hug them, his heart melting a little at the sight. “Don’t worry. You’re far safer with this man than you are with me. I already had to fight an Owlbear tonight - I’ve got a date with a troll later, and you definitely can’t come to that.”

“But - but… we need you,” the girl said. “We would never have made it without you…”

Her words trailed off as the door began to open up, and the miller peeked out nervously, fearful of some trick. “Kids you say? Reward?”

Far from being the sunken cheekbones serial killer that Simon feared he would find, the old man seemed to be decent enough. “The world is a big place. I’m sure we’ll see each other again,” Simon said, not especially looking forward to having to save them and go through this tear-jerker every time from now on, even if it was better than the alternative which was leaving them to die.

Simon thanked the miller, gave the children another two goodbyes, and then headed back down hill towards his date with the bridge.