Dave

Fallen Jungle

11th of Cycle 3, 1015

“You killed him too quick. That bastard deserved to suffer a lot more,” One of the elves perked up.

“Sorry, I couldn’t ‘elp myself,” The executioner responded.

“Well, whatever,” The naked dark elf said as he pointed at me. “Deal with that, Aura.”

Deal with me? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

A dark elf woman emerged from the mix and approached me. If she were clothed, I would’ve noticed more about how she looked, but some sort of instinct drew the entirety of my attention to her two bountiful personality traits. I shook my head to purge the sinful thoughts and tried to find an explanation.

Do they know what happened in the village?

A chill went down my spine. “Listen, I can explain. It wasn’t my fault, I swear.” Surely they’d give me a chance to make things right.

“Whether it was or wasn’t your fault is a separate issue,” She said in a rough but strangely feminine voice. “I have a duty to fulfill. Lie down so I can get started.”

“Screw your duty! Where’s my say in this?”

She stopped walking, obviously confused by my outburst. “Why are you making this difficult?”

“Why the hell should I make it easier for you, you sick bitch? You expect me to let you do what you want?”

“Sick… bitch?” She muttered under her breath as she clenched her fist. “Dirge, get over here.”

My eyes shifted toward the group of elves as a towering man emerged. He held a war hammer, which was at least double my height in length, with one hand. I felt my knees wobble as he approached menacingly.

“Well? Want to lie down yet?” The corners of her mouth curved up a little. “I promise it won’t hurt.”

I didn’t respond. I knew the tremble in my voice would only make me seem weaker.

“You ran straight into the jaws of danger a few minutes ago. Why does this scare you? I’ll have you know I’m renowned in our village for my speed and efficiency.”

That’s what scares me.

I reached for my dagger but recoiled when my hand touched something sharp stuck in my waist.

“Hurts, doesn’t it? I can make that pain go away…”

The pain is pretty manageable, actually. Thanks for the kind offer, but can you let me go now?

I wasn’t dumb enough to plead for my life, and a fight against all of them would be unwinnable, even if they didn’t have armor. Only one choice, then.

Just as I turned around to run, the woman let out a sigh. “Dirge, give him a painkiller.”

There was a brief moment of silence where my hopes of a successful escape reached a peak, but dangersense made sure I didn’t get ahead of myself. I prepared for the worst and glanced back, but Dirge wasn’t chasing me. He was just standing there, swinging his war hammer straight into the ground.

Why did dangersense-

The sound of metal clanking into metal reverberated through the dirt as his hammer slammed down. The force from his strike was so powerful that the ground shook violently, knocking me off balance. I got back to my feet as quickly as I could, but he had already closed the gap, so I activated my vision skill and just barely dodged his swing.

Well, I thought I dodged it, but a strange sensation ran through my body. It felt like someone had just sucked all of my energy out, and I collapsed as everything faded away.

When I woke up, the scenery had changed. I was back in the gremlin cave, and to my surprise, my arms weren’t bound together.

“Oh, you’re up,” A familiar voice called out. “Just in time for dinner, too.”

I looked over to the source and found the psychotic woman from earlier. Now that I had a closer look, I noticed that one of her eyes was dark green, while the other was bright red. She had a scar running along her left cheek under the green eye.

I crawled as far away as I could and hid behind a rock.

She put her hands up in a placating motion. “I don’t know why you’re so afraid of me in the first place, but I’m not going to do anything, okay? I already finished healing you.”

Healing… me?

I looked down at my waist, and sure enough, the wound was completely gone, along with the shards of glass. My brain replayed the strange events from earlier today, and I came to an embarrassing conclusion. “When you told me to lay down, were you… trying to heal me?”

She gave me a confused look. “That’s right, what else would I be doing?”

“Cold-blooded murder,” I snapped back immediately.

She let out an uncharacteristically cute giggle. “Why would I kill you? I should be thanking you. You saved us.”

“That makes a lot more sense. Sorry, I jumped to conclusions.”

“Don’t worry about it too much. I’m Aura, by the way.” She ran over and grabbed my hand. “Come on, it’s time to eat.”

The dark elves were sitting around a campfire outside, fully clothed. “The guest of honor finally arrives!” One of them yelled as he noticed us. “Someone get him a drink!”

“Take a seat, Dave,” Another one called out and moved to the side, opening space for me to sit down.

“How do you know my name? I don’t remember mentioning it.”

“You don’t remember?” The elf got up, put his hand over his chest, and took a deep breath. “I am Dave, honorable scout of the first order! In accordance with my code, I cannot let your words go-”

I grabbed him by the shoulders before he could continue his embarrassing reenactment. “That’s enough. I’d rather not live through that memory again, Grey.”

He laughed, shoved a mug of red liquid into my hand, and stood up. “Now that everyone’s here, I’d like to say a few words that have been on my mind for quite some time.” His face went serious. “We lost a lot of people on this journey, and it tugs at my heart every time I remember their faces. I fall deeper into despair each time I realize that I’ll never talk to them again… That I’ll never fight with them again.” A solemn air descended upon the campfire.

“But they died for our sake. They placed their hopes and dreams in each and every single one of us, trusting that we would carry on their memory. That’s why we don’t have any time to wallow in sadness. We the living have no choice but to step forward and live our lives with their will on our backs.” He raised his mug. “To their memory.”

“To their memory,” The group of elves said as they collectively took a drink. I followed suit but started coughing soon after the first drops entered my mouth. It was much stronger than I expected.

Grey let out a hearty laugh. “The great honorable scout of the first order can’t even hold his drink?”

I toughened up my senses and drained the mug in one go. It burned, but I didn’t care. My honor was on the line. “It just caught me off guard. This much is nothing.”

“Oh, is that so?” His lips twitched up into a grin. “Someone get this man some more to drink!”

A few minutes later, everyone had a second drink filled up. “This drink is in honor of the scout who single-handedly saved us from a slow, painful death! To Dave!”

“To Dave!” The group yelled enthusiastically and drained their mugs again. It was a little embarrassing, but the strong alcohol helped counteract my shame. I noticed a few of the elves grilling various kinds of meat over the fire, and my mouth started watering.

After some good food and a few more drinks, the rest of the night became a blur. I woke up with a strong pain in my head and stomach.

I looked around and saw a bunch of naked dark elves strung out over the floor of the cave. Aura was laying down next to me, and we were both naked too.

What the fuck happened last night?

Grey was the only one who was up already, but he was also stark naked. “You up, Dave? Great, help me get the rest of these bums on their feet, we gotta get back to the village soon.”

The horror of my situation descended upon me like a meteor crashing down. If they took me back to the village…

I got up quickly, which didn’t do my headache any favors, and moved to the cave exit. Grey gave me a confused look, but he shrugged and started lightly kicking one of the passed out elves.

Would he believe me if I just came clean?

I shook my head and darted out of the cave.

I’m sorry, Grey.