《Nobody's Way》Chapter 17 - Born With a Purpose
Advertisement
She is delirious.
Jian isn't sure how long it's been since the bridge, or even whether she's in one piece. Her arms and legs feel as if great weights have been tied to them, and she comes conscious now and then, certain she's at the bottom of the river. She expects to feel burning pain where the ice sliced across her thigh, but the wound never throbs. She can wiggle her toes and fingers. Breathe deep.
No water sputters from her lungs.
Could it all have been a dream? Perhaps the flimsy, hand-cut bridge never splintered at all?
No, of course not, because Jian knows she'd be able to move, to rise, if she weren't trapped under this heavy weight. She opens her eyes, and he's there.
"How do you feel?"
His voice is like music. Melodic, and barely deeper than her own, it feels warm and safe. Jian wonders if he's bespelled her, using the ancient techniques of the South. How else could he appear before her like this, pull her from the water like a child's toy, and weight her body to the ground?
Yet Jian is unafraid. This boy looks like Aselun, so much he could be her long-lost child. He must be touched by the Goddess, too.
She realizes she hasn't answered.
"I am alive," Jian says.
The boy bursts into laughter. Jian thinks he must have expected a more specific response.
"Are you Aselun's son?" she asks.
"Are you still feverish?" He frowns and returns her question with one of his own. Then he places one slender fingertip on her brow, in the space between her eyes. His skin is curiously absent of warmth; not hot, yet not cold, either. It's as if he were carved from alabaster, both in temperature and hue.
Advertisement
"So you weren't sent by Aselun?"
"I don't know who that is." He takes his hand away, apparently satisfied with her pallor. "Your fever's gone down. Let's take away some of the blankets."
The weight slides clumsily from her chest. He's holding Mother's good whistelm blanket, the one Jian uses to bed down at night. The blanket is piled with dried straw and Jian's extra clothing.
Now she feels tattered cloth tangled around her right leg; the remains of her leggings. Jian puts her hand there and finds a bulky dressing where her thigh made contact with the ice. "You saved me."
Out in the wilderness, almost at the End of Lands, this boy had happened across her plight. Somehow.
She remembers something Elder Tuina said when Jian was much younger. 'Those blessed by the Goddess are born with a purpose. They live different lives than you or I, child. That's why you don't see them stray far from Homeland.'
'What about Aselun?' Jian had asked.
'Someday, I'd love to hear Aselun's tales of her youth,' Tuina said. 'But I'll be long gone before she will. I suppose she must have done her service to Maere, to have stayed with us all these years.'
Could this boy have been sent to Jian by Maere Herself?
He sits back lightly on his heels, the slightest frown creasing bloodless lips. "I found you clinging to a rock in the middle of the stream, half-conscious. I'm surprised you were even alive after that. How long were you in the water?"
"Don't know." Thinking about it brings back a jolt of terror. She'd thought she was going to die there, alone in the forest. "I built a bridge in the summer, to get to the other side of the stream. All the good plants are over on that side. It felt sturdy, but it must have grown brittle with the cold."
Advertisement
"You're lucky to be alive."
She knows it. Had there been more ice over the stream, Jian has little doubt she would have gone through and never found a place to come back up.
Talking has made her exhausted. He stills her attempts to sit up. "Don't. Rest, for now."
"All right." That's what she wants, too.
"What's your name?"
"It's Jian."
"Jian," he repeats, slowly, as if tasting the name. Yet he doesn't offer one in return.
"What's yours?" she prompts.
He doesn't respond. Jian has to fight to keep her eyes open, and she's shivering. The boy reaches for the whistelm blanket and covers her again. He lightly rests his fingertips on her shoulder. "Sleep a little longer."
She has the feeling he'll leave the moment her eyes close, and never return. Something about his mannerisms, his unwillingness to look her in the face, makes Jian think he is afraid of something, or someone.
"'Those blessed by the Goddess are born with a purpose.'" She recites Elder Tuina's words. "Are you in a hurry?"
After a long pause, he says, "I'm not going anywhere in particular, yet."
"Then, will you stay with me awhile?"
He settles lightly on the cool ground beside her bedroll, cross-legged. "I can stay."
"Thank you." Jian closes her eyes. "Thank you for saving me."
"My pleasure."
Another silence passes between them, though Jian cannot tell if it is short or long. She's almost startled awake when he speaks again. "You can call me Yugen."
"Yugen." She repeats it, testing the name, as he had done hers. "I've never heard such a name. Not in Elsinoor."
"It's familial," he says, as if that should explain everything. "So, you're from Elsinoor."
"You know it?"
"By name."
"Oh. So you're not from the northern lands, I guess. Is your family far away from here?"
"Very far. I've been on my own for a long time." She senses him shifting, getting more comfortable. "And you're a strange sight to see on her own, too. Where's your family?"
"In the village. Not far."
"Should I fetch someone for you?" Jian can tell from the hesitant way he asks that he doesn't want to do it, and she can't blame him. She's heard the stories of how Aselun first came to the village, and how long it took her to earn their trust. Elsinoorans would always be wary of southlanders, no matter their favour with Maere. Yugen's violet eyes and silver hair would put them into a frenzy for days.
Jian can't go home either, not yet, but she doesn't have the energy to explain the northern custom of the Trial. "No. I feel much better. How bad is my leg?"
"It's in good shape."
She doesn't believe him, because she felt the jagged edge of the half-formed ice slice across her thigh. It isn't painful, however, and the dressings aren't bleeding through, so she doesn't press the matter. "Thank you," she says again.
"It's nothing. In fact, it's kind of nice to be talking to someone."
When Jian cracks one eyelid, he's staring out at the mouth of the cave, and she can't help but notice how forlorn he looks.
Advertisement
12 Miles Below
The world is in ruins.Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface, making even simple survival an ordeal. Frozen derelicts of bygone eras span across massive ice wastes. And the elite few hoard any technology rediscovered within.The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface. But it’s another disaster underground. Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. Unhinged demigods war against them, dying over and over, treating it all like a game. The land itself shifts over time, more contraption than rock. And an ominous prophecy states that the key to everything waits at the last level — but nobody’s ever reached that far.When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient power struggle of titanic scale; the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against Gods, legends, and the grand secrets of the realm that lies below.
8 466Blue Core
Dungeon: A place full of monsters, traps, treasure, and death. Those are the Great Dungeons, with unplumbed depths below the roots of the mountains. That's not for me. Dungeon: A place of rape, torture, and death, to control and corral enemies and slaves. These are the Red Cores, from which the mage-kings draw their power. That's also not for me. I don't like monsters. I don't want adventurers. I want to stay well away from enemies and slaves. Fortunately, there are alternatives... (Includes explicit and consensual sexual content. Chapters containing such will be marked.) Weekly release schedule. Chapter releases start on Fridays, 5PM EST. Join our Discord!
8 722Tale of Yashima
Tale of Yashima is loosely based on the Sengoku era of Japan. The power of the shogunate has crashed and the daimyos of Yashima are fighting for the survival of their clans and control of the land. However, they’re not the only ones. Yashima is a land where both man and yokai co-exist, and not always peacefully. As the daimyos are busy with each other the yokai are also planning their next move. The Night Parade is coming, and not everyone is going to survive. Published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
8 54THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
Dive into a novel about the rise of a legendary sportsman. Follow Zachary Bemba on his journey to become the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) in the soccer world. He travels back to a time in his past where opportunity abounds. Access to a system capable of propelling him to greater heights is just the icing on the cake. From a nobody born in one of the poorest and most remote places on the planet, he relentlessly pursues his goal of becoming the greatest sportsman the world has ever seen. **** ---- G.O.A.T SYSTEM INITIALIZING ---- ACTIVATION SUCCESSFUL ****
8 161Violent Solutions
By the 27th century mankind has long since been wiped out by its own creations and warlike nature. What remains of the Earth is fought over by the creations of the last human civilizations, biological and technological alike. Deep in the jungles of South America, an infiltration android is recalled to its base to be decommissioned, its function no longer required by its commander. As its "life" ends, its final thought is speculation about what it will experience if it is never activated again. Its next thought is confusion. A voice speaks to it, offering it a new mission. Its purpose is to serve, and so it accepts, even though it has its reservations. The voice offers assurances, the mission will be a success. In an unknown year, in an unknown place, a man awakens naked on a beach. He has a strange appearance, matched by an even stranger mind. Having memories of a previous life, an unknown landmark, and a task, he sets out to complete his work. The unusual freedom and lack of structure given in his newest mission is an oddity, but no barrier to success. Should he encounter problems, he knows how to solve them. He is an expert in violence and—when approached correctly—all problems have violent solutions. Updates Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 8PM Eastern Standard Time. Currently only posted on Royal Road. Some tags have been omitted to avoid spoilers.
8 160Wiedźmiński chat,czyli Rakowe rozmowy [ZAKOŃCZONE]
To jest chat. Wiedźmiński chat. Chyba nie muszę wam dalej o nim opowiadać.
8 60