Chapter Five: Presence, Intruder or Intruding?

When Waynev had entered the forest the first time, she hadn’t spotted any fauna other than the numerous insects and even a few slimish balls moving up trees.

She felt like she was being watched.

Whenever a sudden crunch or thwack interrupted the serene environment, Waynev’s head would swing to that direction ducking or standing still trying to blend in with the bush around her.

A day ago, her clean clothes would’ve been in contrast with the surroundings. Now however, her clothes were caked and stained in the luscious green and ever present brown.

It started as her inability to clean said stains from her clothing but eventually they agreed it helped camouflage her in the shadows of bushes, insects and hopefully monsters.

Her shoulders hunched, she frequently found herself looking around, dodging and pushing long leathery branches back or ducking under ones that were too thick or slightly too high.

Keeping up a quick pace was efficient and necessary.

Quest:

Meet the inhabitants on Temporous.

Meet up to one friendly inhabitant of Temporous. Meet up to one hostile inhabitant of Temporous.

Consequence:

One of your forearms will be taken.

Time Limit:

One day, Twenty hours, 56 minutes remaining.

Meeting others was a priority, Shadow agreed that being an amputee in a world with monsters probably meant a swift death.

Waynev noticing an unusually large snap, swung her head at a quick 180 degrees and noticed multiple figures on the other side of the stream, lunging with a giant stride instead of a leap she hid inside her hidey bush.

Figures.

Human figures?

Looking closely her determination watered down to a drizzle.

Monsters.

Their faces looked like a mix between a rat and dog, skin like wrinkled grapes and from a quick look at their bare thread clothes and dirt mangled bodies, they stank.

She’d seen them again, the Rat monsters but this time they hadn’t seen her.

Watching them, she studied them, looking for weakness and whether they were aware of her presence.

Shadow had been with her on the decision, merely telling her to stay strong and adaptive, thinking ahead instead of reacting.

To ignore them, despite the looming threat ignorance could bring.

Waynev thought back to entering the forest the first time, she was threatened by the maze of organics around her, back home the environment had never felt this wild or free…

It felt lonely.

Despite Shadow’s near-constant monologue, sharpening her but also detached Shadow from feeling like a person at times.

It brought her back to the days of solitude, not out of demand but necessity, back when Shadow did everything to make Waynev’s life a living hell.

They only ended when Elise had been harmed, that was when the two worked together for the first time for the plan.

Blinking she focused on the rats again, they were gathering water from the stream at the moment, their muscles were massive, what kind of stats would they have?

Her current stats had slightly improved from yesterday including her wisdom stat, which had been worrying her as it was the stat that she closely related to mana and therefore magic.

Current Status:

Agility:

1.15 → 1.20AH

Strength:

0.8 → 0.85AH

Vitality:

0.95 → 1AH

Wisdom:

1 → 1.5AH

Mana:

(Locked)

Speculation lead to insight, in this case, Shadow’s.

“Wayne I was thinking about why our stats were improving so swiftly.”

Her tone curious.

“At first I thought it was because we absorbed some of the power from the Rat an-”

“Pfft Hahaha.” Waynev laughed at Shadow, voice light, “Why would you think that killing that thing would give us power? Or increase our stat points? Did I miss something in our conversation with Vein?” Waynev gestured, grinning.

“Hold on. I noticed this with our stat screen but Waynev, remember those mobile games that the boys in our class played?” Shadow’s perception of the world around her obviously beating Waynev’s considering her silence.

“Well in one of the games they also had different stats, with similar names to our ones but there’s only increased when they killed monsters or finished their ‘quests’.” Shadow’s spiel not sounding convincing to herself as she said the unfamiliar word, quest.

“Well, Shadow as much I want to think that killing a thousand Rats will give us a thousand stat points. I was thinking that it was just my body improving and growing stronger, even with my strained diet.”

“It doesn’t have to be that complicated, just because there are similarities doesn’t mean that it’s the same as a game, besides I’m in control here and I know my body well enough.” Waynev smirked as she noticed Shadow’s feeling of annoyance.

“Correlation does not mean causation.” She quoted.

“Yeah nah. It could be the mana in the air around us affecting us and helping us grow? Maybe it works like a natural steroid…”

Shadow not accepting defeat mumbled. “We should still keep an open mind about this anyway… at least move past the rat monsters so we can find a bed to sleep in.”

As they snuck past the Rats through the thickest of bushes, on the other side of the stream, Waynev couldn’t help but ask herself why it had attacked her.

Maybe this was the way to complete the quest?

She was in it’s home, shouting at it and running right at the rat thing. If this were earth, she would be accused of breaking and entering maybe even murder if self-defence wasn’t a good enough claim.

Thankfully, she wasn’t on earth and from how slowly her stats were going up. It was going to take a while but she wasn’t grimacing instead.

She was smirking.

Too tired to fully smile she noticed the pull of her lips with surprise.

Realising that she was relieved Earth was a dimension away stopped her train of thought and then there was laughter.

Her hand went to her mouth before she saw the Rat people.

The Rats were socialising, talking animatedly in glibs and what sounded to her like tongues, laughing and having a good time overall she noticed, her eyes wide but even with Shadow telling her to keep moving she stayed crouched down and rooted to the bush.

The quest could be completed in one swoop but was it worth it, she could take on one rat man but two?

Their skin ranged from eggplant coloured to an eroded light purple and she couldn’t help but think of them as intelligent, humanoid.

How couldn’t she, their features weren’t so different from a human even from her hidey bush she could tell they had expressions and emotions.

Not that she was going to talk to them after her previous encounter, but avoiding a new race actively like this didn’t help with her feelings of loneliness or with pressure coming from the quest’s time limit.

The forest was getting to her.

Deeper inside the conniving forest, a lone figure stood over a wide table, skinning their most recent catch.

Crack

The creature butterflied beautifully, prepared to be smoked and cured to last the coming winter.

Crunch

Broken in half to make it easier to store in his smokehouse he nearly bumped into his outhouse walls as he carried half of the butterflied meat outside, escaping the putrid stench of human excrement and rotting flesh.

Humming the grizzled, near decrepit old man continued down the path, despite his age and him shrinking the last few years.

His muscles were still just enough to carry what he needed he thought with a smirk, adding more creases than thought possible even to himself sometimes.

Finding the door to the smokehouse would have customarily been a chore due to his poor eyesight. Still, with some quick thinking, he used blood from his most recent hunt to mark the door with a big X.

The planked shack looked like a big square with no visible openings and a big bloody X on one side, some of the blood dripped down and made the smokehouse look worse than it should’ve.

Ah well, it wasn’t his house at least the satisfied old man thought, opening the door and meeting three other carcasses, the walls pitch black in smoke.

Even if it were clean after using a smokehouse the smoke and ash soak into the wood staining it, only cutting back the outer layer would bring the shack back to its youthful years.

After hanging the first wing and hurrying back to retrieve the other, he closed the door to the smokehouse, perfect for keeping the meat safe for eating and away from pests or animals.

No monsters were this close to civilisation, especially after the annual culling.

Walking to the stream, he rolled his shoulders and neck, his bones creaked and cracked in protest, the old man began washing away the blood and small pieces of fat and gore stuck to him like ants to honey.

Noticing movement the old man suddenly looked uphill, far out of the corner of his eye, he saw a young man coming his way.

After walking for nearly the entire day, Waynev’s lower back screamed it's frustrations as did her eyes which were beginning to close more and stay closed with every few steps.

Waynev noticed the steep river’s path taking less out of her each step, looking down she noticed her body also wasn’t leaning slightly backwards anymore!

“Smooth sailing from here.” Remarked Shadow grateful for the speed boost that stable ground would give them, the quest prospects were looking better by the second, or more accurately the minute.

Quest:

Meet the inhabitants on Temporous.

Meet up to one friendly inhabitant of Temporous. Meet up to one hostile inhabitant of Temporous.

Consequence:

One of your forearms will be taken.

Time Limit:

One day, Nine hours, 5 minutes remaining.

Her lower back and legs thanked her for this with a spark of energy, her head up she began with a sense of purpose.

Masterfully dodging the branches, sticks and stones which thankfully didn’t break her bones and unfortunately didn’t break her fall either when she had tripped over them for the last day and a half.

A structure shone in the distance.

Well, it wasn’t actually shining though to a weary traveller, who had spent what felt like weeks in the outdoors sleeping on leaf beds and makeshift camps without even a campfire.

The eroded box of a house stood tall and gave promises of food and shelter that Waynev was only too happy to accept.

After nearly falling she kept it to a fast walk, her motivated legs and the curve of her lips like a taut bow didn’t waver instead became sturdier, not giving in until she was in a lovely soft bed.

Walking up to the house Waynev looked around for a handle or anything that stood out, with Shadow also pointing out that it may be abandoned or buried, Waynev found it.

“X Marks the spot.” Shadow giggled at Waynev’s slight frown as she walked towards the door, the wood describing what the years of being in the sun’s spotlight meant.

She pushed the door open.

But the sight made her freeze, rigid.

Her eyes slowly widening.

It was filled with bodies.

The walls black and the sacks of meat, some humanoid Rat and… human-sized clung to the rusted hooks, their owners past caring as death evidently claimed them all a while ago.

The skin dried out on the husks, a nipple was seen half hanging off one of the more human-shaped ribs.

“Oh, shit-” Shadow snapped out of it, her survival instincts kicking in.

“TURN AROUND.” Shadow hollered, quicker than a whip Waynev pivoted around her eyes rapidly searching the area around her feeling like a rat in a trap.

The cheese turned out to be a delusion, one that would cost her if she didn’t notice the crazed smile approaching her, circling hugging the walls, his left arm looking for the butcher’s cleaver he left in the outhouse.

“What do I-” Waynev interrupted almost immediately by a hissing whisper.

“The shack. The hut.” Shadow whispered fast, “Far right, between the stump and the small well.” Shadow’s perception saved Waynev once again as she sprinted to the shack.

“Lifeline cut. Hopes dashed. Survive the beast. Derive its lair.”

This time, the hut was made of wood much like the butcher’s smokehouse but rugged and reaching two floors despite its small size.

The door unlocked or the lock broken by Waynev pushing down the handle and with her shoulder crashing into the door and her momentum blasting her through the door.

The figure peering out from the smokehouse began to circle around to his house.

Normally he drugged travellers or runaway slaves but, this called for desperate measures he thought with a grin going towards the outhouse before anything else.

“Barricade-the-door, find-a-weapon, prepare-a-trap.” Shadow’s quick instructions told Waynev the overall plan, she followed without hesitation, grabbing a nearby chair and racing for the door despite not seeing anyone.

“We don’t know if the monster or thing that killed those people are here mayb-”

Shadow interrupted with a growl of impatience “I could feel his presence, he was right behind us before and like a predator he was about to strike.”

Waynev suddenly felt the panic and cold sweat that Shadow had felt moments before.

She went to the shutters and slammed them shut.

Upended a nearby table close to the door, kicking it and shoving the crisp wood forward.

Her back and forearms raging, adrenaline helping what would’ve been torture numbing most of the pain.

“Check the cupboards and counter for knives, weapons, anything.” Shadow demanded her voice strained as she felt the weak presence start to come their way.

“Shit.” Waynev swore.

Her foot banged a loose table leg, as she stumbled forward two feet into the cramped living room/kitchen, the ceiling was high but moving faster than a walk left her banging into the death trap around her.

No knives.

Bang

Clack

Clunk

Only unmistakably blunt cutlery, swearing again Waynev began pulling out draw after draw of junk.

Broken weapons, shield halves and even some blunt daggers could be found.

“This isn’t good.” Waynev grimaced.

Grabbing one of the nicer daggers she put the blade into her back pocket.

Still blunt but it seemed like it could make do as a finisher.

Waynev also quickly removed the bucket from her belt, haphazardly putting it on the bench before she looked at the bottom mouldy draw.

Trying to pull the drawer out suddenly caused the whole cabinet to move and rumble like her stomach had been the first day.

About to try again she spread her feet and just as she was about to give the cabinet a new one a loud smash hit the door.

“Shit it’s here.” Shadow took a mental step back, noticing her connection to Waynev’s emotions and her body before wisely yet sadly cutting the link.

Hopefully temporarily.

“WAYNE open-the-last-cabinet slowly then-get-ready.” Shadow’s words dashing into each other didn’t reassure Waynev.

Still, it certainly made sure the adrenaline was starting to move through her body.

Waynev slowly began pulling the last draw open-

BANG

-pulling and pushing. Up. Down. Up Do-

CLACK

Then the noises stopped, Waynev took advantage of this newfound peace, pulled the draw down, and ripped it from the cabinet altogether, the mechanism broken but the newly found loot discovered.

It was… a material she had never seen before, in the middle of the pile surrounding the mouldy broken gear of past prey was a white as a cloud, no white as marble.

Knuckles.

Or as she liked to call it, a knuckle duster.

But these… These were more than just a fashion statement. She could feel there was something more within the knuckles, something calling to her but the call would go unheard as the fierce predator finally began his assault.

STRUK

As Waynev was admiring her newfound tool the thing had stepped back and started cleaving the door in half.

CHUC

TRIK

CHICU

STRUK

Blow after blow he wasn’t letting up and neither would Waynev, racing towards the stairs as the door finally began to break apart.

PISSHHKC

Splinters and broken wood marked the end of her preparations and the beginning of the hunt for the decrepit monster, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

He began kicking and pushing through the obstacle course as Waynev made it to the top of the staircase.

Trying to open the door, she pushed down the handle but found no purchase.

It was locked.

Waynev’s face, a mask of horror interrupted by Shadow’s quick thinking. “Stop looking like a lamb to slaughter AND THINK.”

Snapping out of it with Shadow’s screech and past experience helping her gain clarity.

Waynev put on the knuckle as the killer finally made his way to the bottom of the staircase huffing and puffing with a wrinkled smile on his face.

The veneer of an old man was gone and in its place was a maniac Waynev saw him for.

She was surprised however at both his age and stature.

He was thin wearing long stained pants and a discoloured shirt, muscles taut, his cleaver bloodied but already sweat was forming on his face.

“Remember this is a battle of attrition,” Shadow acted as her guide, giving information as the old man slowly began the climb.

“Avoid his strikes, wait for when he swings the cleaver and remember your fighting on stairs, keep your balance and when he loses his PUSH.”

Shadow finished her spiel just in time for the old man to be halfway to the top.

Beginning to pant Waynev raced towards him.

Surprise not interrupting the crazed smile on his face as he strained to attack.

Just in range Waynev dodged backwards as a half-aimed cleaver came towards her legs.

Moving back towards him she continued trying to punch and stab.

Nimbly dodging his attacks, her ‘attacks’ were fast but in reality, just feints.

Coming close to the creature but ultimately just missing him with each dodge on the uneven ground causing him to expend more and more energy trying to catch the minx taunting him.

It’s smile finally left and paved the way for a snarl it shouted. “Stay STILL-”

A half-lunge half-swipe at Waynev nearly sliced her stomach open.

Interrupted by a nimble backstep then a swift kick knocking him back.

Almost off balance, which caused him to drop his cleaver and spread his arms out at the walls.

“Hit the left limb, test it.”

Ignoring Shadow she took things into her own hands.

Waynev steadied herself as the killer began using his bare fists.

Punches began coming, now it was her turn to bite.

The prey turned predator began half-punching half-slicing, never extending past a few stairs lest she fall to her doom.

Back and forth the knuckles found their mark more than and more.

But the dagger was avoided with swift turns and ducks.

The zealot slowly pushed back, not losing his balance with both hands-free.

Now exhaustion was starting to wear Waynev down.

Her strikes, kicks and punches lost their earlier buzz but were still pushing the old man back, leaving more bruises than the occasional punch it caused.

But it wasn’t enough, finding its mark on the ground the snarl turned smile again.

Waynev had to retreat up the stairs.

She only had one chance at this now that he knew her stamina was limited and her fighting potential weak.

Still slowly moving backwards, the sudden movement of the wolf lunged two stairs at a time made her flinch and slowed her dodge.

“MOVE!” Shadow’s warning late as the cleaver finally found its mark, her arm holding the dagger going limp.

Waynev screeched as the wolf pulled the instrument back, a maniacal smile coming closer she raised her legs and shoved him back.

Pushing him down the stairs, he stumbled on a few, his free hand slowing his descent.

Waynev’s blood began streaming onto the stairs in front of her.

Her eyes wide, heart drumming her body into action.

“GRAB-THE-DAGGER, PUT YOUR INJURED ARM IN FRONT OF YOU!” Shadow’s advice before guiding now instructed, no other plan forming in her pain-addled mind.

Grabbing the dagger Waynev began retreating to the top of the stairs, her blood staining the stairs, causing the uneven stairs to become a danger, a tool, a weapon.

“The stairs as he climbs, directly stab at him when he blocks, let go of the dagger and grab the same leg as the one holding the dagger.” Shadow’s voice became more distant.

Waynev nodded, despite her face losing colour there was only one thing in her eyes.

His right leg.

The wolf’s cracked smile revitalised at the scent of blood, licked his lips and began coming up the last few stairs.

His legs more unstable than before at the new ground, distracted however by the blooming soon to be a corpse in front of his eyes, the stairs went unnoticed.

Waynev’s tired grin came back as the old wolf came into range.

Ready to be culled in Waynev’s eyes but ready to cull another meal in his.

Waynev noticed his right foot enter the blood-puddle and his left about to follow suddenly stabbed at the towering beast of a man.

The direct stab to the heart surprised him.

Leaving no room to duck just to dodge with his cleaver, both hands gripping its sides the cleaver went to the dagger’s trajectory but never met.

Dropping the act as soon as she had come into range of grabbing his right leg, she let go of the dagger letting it fall in front of his eyes, another surprise, another chance.

Ripping his leg up in the same moment, her youthful agility paired with the slippery ground outclasses his strength and faltering stamina pushed him past the brink, past the stairs. He passed into the floor and wooden wall his weight causing the house to shudder, the broken wall separating into thousands of tiny splinters of wood eviscerating his once strong hide into a mixture of death and cruelty.

His body turned into a corpse in less than a few seconds, slowly carefully, this is how a life is taken Shadow’s words echoed through Waynev’s increasingly light head.

She collapsed leaning on one of the walls the adrenaline leaving her body, the call for sleep and surrender seeming more appealing than fixing the mess in front of he-

“WAYNEV!” Shadow’s voice no longer an echo, snapped her dazed, tired mind into gear.

“Downstairs there were bandages in the second draw, close the wound tightly!” Stumbling down the stairs, each time Waynev blinked she was somewhere else, she was passing in and out, finding the cloth she began slowly closing her right arm’s wound, then tightly as Shadow’s incessant screaming, worried that this would be the end.

Closing the wound, sleep called for her now more than ever, but Shadow wouldn’t let her, making her sit up and go to her bucket. Grabbing it with her good hand, she slouched against the cabinet. She slowly fell to the ground, using the ground as a rest for the bucket she began looking inside.

Still have a few berries left she garbled them down. She was happy they both filled her and satisfied her thirst, staring into the bucket she blandly looked up and saw the thing still lodged in the wall in front of her, the familiar smell of iron and blood came her way but before she could close her eyes and rest Shadow asked her a question.

“Waynev.” Shadow’s tone inciting something close to a conspiracy.

“No.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

But there was a fire in her tone, the same fire she felt when she got her power.

The same fire she felt when she saw the two mages decimate the powerful creature.

“This… This wasn’t right.” In anger or sorrow she continued.

“How was getting to the stairs the right plan, we nearly died. I nearly died.”

“For what? A wound that will kill me in weeks rather than hours?”

“What do you me-”

“How was running to the house a good idea?” Waynev interrupted, her world spinning but the words came to her lips easily.

“How could he outrun me? I’m more than half his age. I could’ve easily-”

“We didn’t know what he was capable of or-”

“Shadow please. Did you think of him or did you think of you, why did you want us to come here instead of running away from this hellhole,” Eyeing the broken wall, her eyes were heavy but her heart was tense.

“I…”

“I’ve lived with you for years. Did you think I don’t notice when you lie?”

The silence spoke more about her thoughts than Waynev wanted.

“We needed supplies.” Her voice was quiet but it was unmistakable in it's tone.

Cold.

“And you thought it was worth the risk.”

It was a statement, a statement that hurt less than the pinging her arm gave her every few seconds.

What finally came wasn’t an answer, but it was what she needed.

“Don’t you think he had at least a bed upstairs?” Waynev’s tired eyes lighting up despite all that happened, speaking wonders of what the last few days had made her think of the luxuries she took for granted.

Sighing she picked up the empty bucket and put it upside down, using it as a stool for her arm to pick herself up with. She pushed and began slowly walking towards the body, lightly kicking the junk around her feet.

As she avoided looking at the wolf’s upper body, she focused on his pants, where the key to a pleasant dream hopefully lay. Finding the rusted thing in his right pocket Waynev didn’t bother looking in his left, her legs dragging her up the stairs.

Unlocking the door with a simple click, she leaned forward and was surprised to see…

Just a regular bed, with some animal skins on the floor, the linen was lightly stained, but Waynev didn’t even bother going under the covers, walking up the bed she looked at it and flopped down.

The covers were softer than she could believe and the bed double her size.

She dissolved in it.

Even Shadow couldn’t resist the call to sleep this time.