Di'Rex

I woke up to more than a few pebbles on the ground. I found Jack throwing another one with a smile. "Hey! You're finally awake!"

I nodded, blinking the sleep from my eyes. "How long have I been out?"

Jack shrugged, "A while, breakfast is probably cold. Did you sleep well?"

A quick yawn and I jumped off the wall and rolled. I rolled my shoulders and neck, "I slept well enough." Jack nodded, before running off. I followed to the smithy, eating breakfast while Mom was out there hunting. I couldn't taste it, but that didn't matter. My dream came back to me, as I pulled my tribe's ax off my back.

The weapon was well cared for, and I had hoped to have mom add some runes for the battles ahead. That didn't matter now, it was clear I had disgraced all we stood for. Jack ate his food without complaining and left without a word. He was eager to get his chores done so we could prepare for tonight. I couldn't ask for a better brother.

I finished my meal, before heading to Dixon's house. The man was sleeping with his wife in the guest room, and I ignored the two. There was a certain kind of calm today. It was a grim one, born from the understanding that we might all die tonight. There was no laughing, no banter among those going about their chores. Just a kind of acceptance, we didn't know who we would even be here tomorrow. I climbed the stairs, holding the ax in my hands, careful to not let it touch anything.

Richard was sitting up on Dixon's bed, looking completely defeated. He didn't look at me, nor did he say anything. I approached, ax held in front of my chest. I tossed it in front of his feet, causing the man to blink. He finally turned towards me, "We can't kill her... I don't think I could even if I wanted to." He was starting to panic.

I sat down in the seat, leaning forward with my hands clasped together. "We ain't even going to try. She hasn't done anything that deserves being killed for."

Richard swallowed hard, looking at the ax. "Why are you putting it there then? I... I don't think I can spar. Not today, not right now."

"I'm giving it to you, Richard." I watched his every move.

Surprise lit upon his face, as he looked between me and the ax. "What? Why? I don't understand? I thought you'd be furious because... because I've just been sitting here."

I let out a small sigh, "I'm not, if anyone has the right to be furious, it's you. You two saved my life, and I spat on that. I tried to kill someone you loved, searching for a way to restore my honor. I butted heads with you and sparred just to keep myself happy. It was less for you, and all about me and what I wanted. I used you, Richard. I am ashamed of that, so now I am giving you my ax."

He swallowed hard, "I... everyone uses each other. That's one of the rules of the Underground." He gave a broken chuckle, "I don't even know what it means for an orc to give someone their weapon."

I gave a bitter laugh in return, "That's not just any weapon, it is the weapon of my tribe. Me giving it to you means your will is my own. I am to serve you, Richard. Whatever you need me to do, you need only ask."

Richard shook his head, "I can't refuse?"

"You can, but that's like saying I'm completely worthless. Most orcs would kill themselves, but there are vampires coming tonight. I'd rather die in battle, even if there is no honor in it." I stroked my chin.

Richard looked at my ax, afraid to pick it up. "Mimi will deal with the vampires."

"She won't." I cracked my neck.

Richard shook his head, "She will, she won't miss a good battle."

"She left last night, I saw her carrying her wagon above her head. She made it very clear it wasn't her problem." I laughed a little, "Honestly, I don't blame her. Why should she help a bunch of suicidal idiots that broke the trust her lover held in her?"

Richard lowered his head, "I shouldn't have trusted her..."

I rolled my eyes, "It's funny, I don't think she's lied to me once."

"All she does is lie..." His voice got softer.

"Oh really? What makes you think that, especially now? After all this time?" I tilted my head towards him.

Richard shook his head, "All those vampires, how she changes them into her own with bugs. Even the town changing its name to Luf'Ard. They wouldn't do that. I'm not good enough to make them do that."

"Right, why would they ever change their name to reflect the guy that came in their time of need? I suppose it was Mimi's idea in the first place, which means she's very generous. Unless you want to say you went there and started helping them first." I already heard how it all happened from the people I talked to back then. It was what truly convinced me that my debt was Richard's and that he would bring me to honor.

He fidgeted, "I doomed them, by taking her there. They're all probably vampires by now."

"Ah, so you were the one that took her there. It was your idea to fix up the town. Though, I doubt she'd turn them all into vampires. They need to drink blood after all. You mentioned blood fountains during one of our spars. Do you think she'd turn the kids into one?"

Richard paled, before slowly shaking his head. "No... if anyone saw that they'd know she's evil... She made it a point that she believed people got very upset whenever kids were hurt. She said she wouldn't hurt them unless she absolutely had to. Even then she'd try to make it painless. That's the one thing she said she never wanted to be accused of. Hurting kids would make everyone unite against her, versus people going to her side because she protects them."

"Huh, I didn't know that." I didn't, but it was a pleasant surprise. "So, you're certain she doesn't hurt kids?" Richard nodded slowly. "Wouldn't turning a whole village into vampires, hurt them? I mean, those are the parents of those kids. They'd be left wandering around during the day. No one would be able to protect them if something decided to attack during that time." I kept my eyes on the man as he squirmed.

"She'd at least take over the vampires that were already there, those were innocent people!" He looked at me, trying to make me understand.

Dixon knocked on the door, carrying in a platter of food. "Ah! Greetings, it's great to see you're up, Sir Richard." He was sweating. "You must be famished, you've hardly eaten anything. It's wonderful to see you talking."

Richard looked at the man when an idea sparked in his mind. "Tell him, Dixon!" He pointed at me, "Tell him about Mark, and how she turned him!"

"T-turned? What do you mean? I'm afraid I don't understand. Did the daughter of Bo'Chi turn mark into a vampire?" He slowly approached with the platter of food.

"You said Mark had bugs on him! Tell him about the dreads!" Richard was yelling at this point.

Dixon paused, "You mean the blue bugs attached to his shoulders? He did have those, but in none of my dreams did he have dreadlocks. He was pleasant to talk to, but I can't ask him to braid his hair in such a way now. Why are dreads important?" Dixon looked very confused.

Richard paused, "Y-you said he had bugs on him."

Dixon nodded slowly, "He did, fat blue things that glowed. Mark mentioned that they allowed him to teleport, but that was all he said about them." Dixon turned towards me, "Why are dreads important?"

I coughed, "He's talking about the stingers that Mimi has. He's asking if Mark had stingers."

Dixon blinked, "No? Why would he have that? He said he was connected to the Hive, that he was proud about it, but he didn't have stingers? Is he supposed to be blessed with those?"

Richard threw off his blankets, "I made a terrible mistake!" He rushed out of the room.

I sighed, picking up the ax, "You finally managed to do something right, good job, Dixon." I winked at the very confused chief. Then I jumped out of the window as he screamed about just having it fixed. I rolled when I hit the ground, Richard running out of the house towards the storehouse. "She isn't there Richard!"

"She's always listening through her bugs!" He kept running, and I had to run after him. This felt very familiar, but there weren't guards this time. I tried to keep up with him, but he was sprinting with everything he had. He slammed into the doors, opening them with all the strength he could manage. "MIMI!"

I caught up to him, looking at the wagon that blocked the light from filling the place. A low hissing voice spoke, "She is no longer here." Three others laughed.

Richard grabbed the torch on the rider's seat and lit it, "Close the door, she's pissed." You think!? I didn't say anything and closed the door as asked. Richard walked around the wagon, as I followed. Three hopping vampires were standing around the teleporter, all of them baring their fangs. All of them had dread stingers, just like Mimi. It made sense once I saw them, and the claws. The only female was standing in the front, her arms crossed.

I appreciated that the sacks used for the rice had been remade into cloth clothes. Though these vampires were still very hungry, and their skin was wrinkled like a raisin. The female spoke, her voice raspy and hissing. It was hard to even tell it was a girl in that state, "Leave, there is nothing for you here. The mistress has left your goods in your wagon. This storehouse belongs to her."

Richard sighed, "I'm sorry, Mimi. I should have let you explain."

"I'm not Mimi!" The vampire hissed, the others following in unison. They clearly weren't Mimi.

Richard waved his torch around, "Yes you are, Gray just leaves his bodies hanging on hooks. They can't think, and he complained about them wandering around and eating the blood fountains he made. Someone has to be controlling these vampires, so let's not pretend you're someone different."

"I'm a personality! One of the wisps, the eater of souls! Mimi is very upset with you!" She waved her hands around in the air.

Richard cracked his neck, "That's funny, every personality I talked to only refers to Mimi in a certain way. They call her their Queen, yet here you are not even bothering to say that."

The vampire huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "Fine, you got me. I am relieved to see you walking around, but that doesn't change anything. I'm still rather cross with you, you have no idea how much it hurts that you'd try to break our bond."

Yeah, it was best if I just stayed quiet. So, I stood there watching their spat. Richard laughed, "Yeah, I don't have an idea. I'm sorry about that, I just thought you turned the entire town!"

"I tried explaining it to you, but you didn't want to listen! Now you're even saying it's my fault when I still didn't do anything!" The vampires behind her hissed, probably trying to remind us they were still there.

Richard nodded, "Yeah, but what do you expect!? You already told me you'd eat Pandora if you thought it was more beneficial. Now you're upset that I misunderstood something!? You're as much to blame as I am." He pointed at the vampire, and then thumbed his chest.

The vampire huffed, crossing her arms, "You said you accepted that about me! That it was fine as long as I didn't actually do it, and confirmed it with you. That she also had to agree!"

Richard put a hand on his hip still holding the torch towards the vampire, "It's still fucked up! I accept that about you, but seeing you make the damn teleporter was the last straw! Nobody is meant to see that! You don't even realize how fucked up some of the shit you do is!"

"I had guards! I told them to make sure nobody came in! Then Di'Rex here decided to pummel them!" She gestured towards me, "You can blame all of this on him if you want to be the victim so bad!"

"Leave Rex out of this, he's trying to protect his village!" I feel like he forgot about me standing behind him. "You're hard to get along with if you aren't in the right! I mean really, Mimi? You're just going to leave this entire village to die because you're pissed at me?"

"That's right! I'll let them all die right in front of you. That's what you think of me!" She snapped her fingers.

Richard crossed his arms, "Right, so why do you have four vampires here?"

"I was going to make them fight off anyone stupid enough to come in here and try and force me to use the teleporter." She smirked as she said it.

Richard rolled his eyes, "You sure? Could have attacked us as soon as we came in here. I don't believe it. Why do you even have the teleporter here in the first place? Don't tell me you don't have some cave to stick it in. I know you better than that."

The vampire tsked, "I was going to make the village fight to the death, so the survivors could go to Luf'Ard. Then I'd turn them into vampires because that's clearly what you expect me to do!"

Richard clicked his tongue, shaking his head slowly. "We both know you're better than that. A whole bunch of village hicks won't entertain you. You need fiends and wyverns fighting each other. You need powerhouses slamming blows into each other, on a scale that makes bards shit their pants and write epics. You left the teleporter here to give the people of this place a chance to escape. Sure, they'd have to beg, but you'd let them."

"Shut up." All of the vampires hissed, even the teleporter.

Richard glared at the vampire looking at him, "You try to act tough, but you're a big pushover whenever it comes to this kind of stuff. You probably already dealt with the vampires."

The vampire started laughing, "I haven't, you mean nothing to me. This whole place can burn to the ground!"

Richard sighed, "Oh? Then I guess you won't come when the vampires break through the walls? You're not going to be here when an entire horde of them is nearly upon us? No way in all the hells is the woman I love going to let a single person die!"

The vampire stamped her foot, as the teleporter disappeared. "I hate it when you call me out like this!"

Richard snapped his fingers, and pointed, "You love it because it proves I know you too well." He even winked.

There was much to learn from this man, when it came to dealing with Mimi. The vampire sighed, "I'll use these four bodies to help, but I'm not coming back for you. You'll have to catch up on your own. Oh! I can even teleport you back to Luf'Ard, and let you hear Mark tell you everything." She smirked, "I think that's a good punishment. Don't you want to see if I turned them all into vampires?"

Richard shrugged, "I said I was sorry, but if you want to send me back then I'll go. The point was that I didn't trust you. Now, I'm going to trust that you didn't. You don't need to send me back, unless you want to. If you don't, then I will trust that you haven't done what I thought you did. This is completely up to you, because I made the mistake. I want to make it better than alright, so tell me what you want."

The vampire slumped a little, "It's more useful to keep the people in Luf'Ard as they are. Sending you back serves no purpose, beyond making you take longer. Richard, you do realize that I'm mainly upset that your faith was broken so easily, correct? It is concerning, and here you are pretending nothing happened."

Richard crossed his arms, "Honestly, it's probably because we haven't fought this since Di'Rex showed up. It's kind of been building, and well this journey is stressful." He smiled at her, "We'll make mistakes, and you know I'll forgive you. Can you do the same for me?"

The vampire put her hands together, fingers spread out in front of her lips, "If I went dim, would you have talked to the Hive and told me to come back?"

Richard tilted his head, "I would have woken you up, and talked to you about it." He rubbed the back of his head, "I probably would have broken our bond, I was in a bad headspace. I'm still not better, but I'm glad you didn't break things off between us. I'm sorry for holding you back, Mimi." He looked her in the eyes, his intentions genuine. I felt moved by their affection, which only made me feel worse, knowing that I had tried to kill this man's significant other.

The vampire sighed, "I'm still not traveling with you."

Richard snapped his fingers, "Damn!" He took a few steps towards her, "Is it because of the city?"

The vampire tilted her head back, "Among other reasons, I will likely need to do unsavory things. I didn't mean for you to see the teleporter being made..."

Richard held up a hand, as he walked closer to the vampire. He put his gloved fingers between her own, looking up at her. "Mimi, you are a wonderful person. I know you weigh the consequences of your actions, and I need to trust you. You can do things I can't, and I hate killing. Do what you have to, and if you feel bad, talk to me. I want to be able to help you, to stand beside you. Dixon talked about the attack, and you want to minimize the damage to the city. That's who you are, and I love that about you. You're the true hero."

The vampire cracked a smile, "If I could be half of what you think of me, I could do about anything. These vampires will help protect the village, and I might make an appearance if more aid is needed. You should sell the wagon and get whatever you two might need. I can't promise that I will be able to help you if something terrible comes."

Richard nodded, "Thanks for not offering to just teleport us to the city, you've been patient with me, so let me show you who the hell I am."

The vampire sighed, "You wouldn't have accepted it anyway, and it wouldn't be a punishment otherwise. Just make a coffin for this body. Di'Rex can carry the Hive, and I am willing to allow this vampire the opportunity to hunt for you both."

Richard shrugged, "Di'Rex will hunt, and I kind of need to get over it myself. I feel like I'm doing too little, just sitting on my ass all day. He can carry the coffin in case we run into anything we can't deal with at night. Since he tried to kill you, and all." The bastard winked, but I couldn't find it in myself to be upset. My village would be saved, but I couldn't let my people know that. Dixon was a shit leader, and they needed to believe he brought this upon them.

I coughed, "Seems like you two are done, I'm going to go prepare some barricades."

The two pulled away blushing, while Richard rubbed the back of his head, "Hmm, yeah, sure thing."

The vampire let out a small cough, "These bodies are starving, and they can use magic from those they drink the blood of. Have some discreetly come here, and tell the people they will only observe for now. If I'm helping, you're at least going to lie for me."

I cracked my neck, "Richard, catch." I tossed the ax towards him, and he caught it while stumbling back. "Your morals are my own, I owe you both a debt after all." I walked past the wagon, before sighing, "Thank you, both of you."

I opened the doors, as they told me I was welcome. I closed them, noticing that the sun had moved a bit, the whole conversation taking an hour or two. It didn't feel like a waste of time. I got the others to cook while taking a few of our noncombatants to the storehouse. It was supposed to seem like their last meal, and I had to force myself to stop smiling a few times.

Richard joined the cooking, while Dixon silently prayed in front of the stature. Some of the guards joined as well, not knowing what to do now that they believed their lives could be measured in hours. There was no cheering, or festivities, as we all grimly prepared the walls for the coming attack. I was surprised when I heard an explosion and someone started laughing.

Others heard it after the meal, and we all flocked to find Richard scribbling some notes in his journal. He dipped another wooden arrow in his mysterious gray bottle. Jack chuckled as he threw it towards the target. The arrow hit its mark and exploded right after. My eyes went wide after Richard added some powder to his explosive mixture. "Alright, Jack, let's try this one."

Jack grinned, "Nice." He picked up the coated wooden arrow. It didn't have a head on it, since it was what we used for practice. Everyone just stared silently as Jack threw it at the target again. This time the explosion was much more violent and took out a huge chunk from the target. Richard muttered to himself, writing a few more notes.

"What are you doing?" I couldn't hold it back.

Richard looked up and jumped when he saw nearly the whole village had gathered by this point. He rubbed the back of his head, "I'm tweaking my explosives. I figured I could make them more explosive since your mom had metal dust laying around. I was thinking I could throw the improved mixture at a few of them, maybe take out a group or two."

I looked at him, the wooden arrows, then the target. "Richard, how far until you lose control over the mixture?"

He blinked, "I don't know, I never really tested how far I could influence stuff I made with my magic, why?"

"How many arrows can one bottle coat?" He looked at the bottle, then the arrows, his eyes going wide as he connected the dots.

I grabbed him by the shoulders as he stared up at me, "Holy shit!"

"How much can you make, Richard? How much can you control at once?" I shook him.

He grinned, "Maybe a hundred, we can shoot some and find out my limit while on the walls!"

I grinned back, "Get everything you need, and I'll get these idiots ready to fire their volleys."

Richard nodded, heading towards the storehouse. I turned to the others, hope beginning to spark in their eyes.