《Fantasy and Terror Klepto's Harbinger》Ch 10. Waking up to a Stranger
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Damien slowly woke up on his back, with the feeling of soft grass under him. The sun was shining on to his face making it difficult to see his surroundings. His muscles were sore and he was still very tired. Looking down at himself he could still see the blood from his clothes from the men he killed. He sighed and realized that passing out and waking covered in blood and gore was starting to become a common occurrence on this planet. Sitting up, he cast divine touch on himself to bring himself back to normal and alleviate any other issues within himself. Then his clense spell to remove all dirt and grime off his body and clothes. Standing completely Damien looked around.
He had heard a gasp behind him and someone scrambling away from his direction. He turned around to see the now, somewhat less disheveled woman behind him with her back against the wall still trying to back up as though she was trying to pass through the solid rock. She was taller for a woman and she came up to Damien's height, she had a curvy athletic build and had very green eyes and light almost pale skin. She was very beautiful even though her hair was cut unevenly in a very weird way.
This woman is first human he's come contct with so he didn't want to make a bad impression. Heck, this was the first person this is the first he's been forced to be in a confined space with on two planets, in a very long time. "Well, this is about to be extremely awkward", Damien thought. When he really looked more closely at the woman's face is when he really noticed the fear of a cornered in her eyes. She glanced up and hurriedly looked back down.
"I,I,I am sorry that I-I used some of the water to drink and to clean myself off to get rid of the smell that I've had on me for weeks. I also ate some of the fruits that you had piled up on the ground. I,I,I could not help myself, such a long time has passed since I've had a proper meal. I felt as though I would die if I did not eat and drink something soon." The woman stammered. Fear was evident in her voice.
"It's okay you can have as much as you want. " Damien answered her with his hands raised in the air to show that he meant the woman no harm. "I Ieft the food and water there for you. You looked like you would need it. I hope that your feeling better you had lost a lot of blood."
"I'm fine, t-thank you. I do have to use a privy though, it has been many hours since the last time and I only had taken one drink of water before I began to wash in the water basin I did so before I thought better of myself. I,I, I'm sorry," the fear returning to her voice.
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Damien definitely didn't think of any of those things in his fatigued state. Not that he could at the time anyways. He was just embarrassed a bit for having so low accommodations for the woman. He didn't know why he felt that way.
"It's fine, anyway I can- Damien took a step towards the woman but she drew back hard once again and she tried to back out through the stone wall again. Damien stopped his advance and put his hands in the air once again. "I'm sorry you looked like you have been through a lot. I didn't mean to scare you at all. I just wanted to help." This wasn't working at all. Damien took the wall locker out of his inventory appearing near him and he began opening it up and began removing clothing but paused when the woman gasped.
"Y,Y,Y-Your a mage!" The woman stammered and had a fearful wide eyed look in her eyes. She dropped to her knees and looked down in complete hopelessness. She looked like she had just resigned herself to whatever fate was going to happen to her.
This inital confrontation with other humans was definitely not going how Damien thought it sould be. He was terrible at these kinds of situations like calming people down and being reassuring but, Damien tried anyways. This woman had been through hell and back from the looks of her.
He took out the cloth shorts, a shirt, and the slide flip flop shoes. He conjured a sharp iron blade with his earth magic and tried to measure her foot size with his eyeballs and cut the back of the shoes so that they could fit her somewhat and took out some socks for her feet. He took a couple of steps towards the woman set the clothes down slowly and backed away from the woman to the other side of the dome.
He raised a small wall just above her head a few feet away from her and walked to the other side of the dome and sat facing the opposite direction of her. At the same time, he channeled his water magic and emptied out the used water in the basin and collected water with his will from the atmosphere and it began refilling the large basin with purified water. He willed the basin lower to a smaller height and began to roll it next to her location and sealed off the area with earth magic. He then warmed the water with fire magic until steam could be seen rising from the water to complete the makeshift bathtub. While the woman watched on in amazement because this man had done all of this with his back turned.
"Here are clothes and shoes and a basin to wash in. As you can tell, water isn't an issue for me so I don't mind you washing, I even warmed the water for you. I am trying to show you that I am no threat. I would not have gone through the trouble of saving you if I was just planning on hurting you. My name is Damien, by the way, Damien Sorlen."
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That was when Selene had remembered the bandits chasing her. "The bandits! I have to go! We must flee away from this place if they come back we won't be able to escap-!
"They have already been taken care of" Damien cut her off. He didn't like thinking about what he did. What he felt like he had to do. He had never killed a man in such a way. With such brutality and nonchalance. He felt nothing as he was snuffing out lives. His anger had completely taken over. He didn't even feel like himself anymore. He felt alien. How would his daughter look at him if she ever saw him do that to another human life? He was far from the soldier he used to be. He was a father first and he had completely changed his ways. It seemed like killing came to him no matter what he wanted to do. He could not escape this planets violence nature. If Damien had anything to do with it, it will not stay that way.
Selene went silent. The way the man had spoken showed her there would be no more discussion about it. She calmed herself but, could sense that 'taking care of it' as the mysterious mage had put it really bothered him. That is strangely what calmed her. She had been around men who could torture a person and cared little to nothing for life. To find someone who took no pleasure in death was a reassuring feeling in a strange way.
She stood up and slowly walked towards the clothes on the ground picked them up and backed away towards the wall the man made. She walked to the other side of it and stripped down and quickly entered the bath with a long sigh. If this was all a trick and these were he last moments, well she was going to enjoy it before her end. She hadn't had a warm bath in YEARS! She kicked, splashed and frolic and giggled like a child. This was the first time in many months she was happy. She stayed in the water until it began to cool. When she exited the basin. She dressed in clean clothes made of strange fabrics and strange shoes which were all much too big for her, but she didn't want to complain. When she exited, she peeks around the corner and the man was still sitting in the same place, just staring at the wall. She didn't want to bother the man but, she still hadn't used a privy and she needed to go quite badly. She cleared her throat. "Sir Mage?"
The man broke out of his dazed looking state. ""Yes?"
She noticed the man still hadn't turned around. "Um, I still need to use privy sir."
"I'm sorry but, for that, I'd have to touch you to use a spell divine touch."
This was it, Selene knew it was all a facade. She knew he was just cleaning her up to use her like the bandits wanted to do, how could he be so stupid! How could she-!
Damien could hear the woman's erratic breathing and tried to calm her down again. "I had already used the spell to heal you. How do you think your wounds closed overnight? Didn't you wake up with all of your clothes still on? If I planned on doing anything to you, why wait for you to wake up? You were already healed. The spell takes away the need to use the bat-, I mean the privy. Do you want me to help you or not?" Damien didn't want to be rude but, he was still having conflicting thoughts about how his daughter would feel if she had seen him now. Which also made him think of missing her all over again. He didn't even have a picture of her with him.
This was the first time he had spoken to the woman in this short manner. He had been nothing but kind and patient with her since she had woken up and she remembers very vividly the arrow piercing her leg that was now completely gone without so much as a scar. She has never heard of heal magic that didn't even leave a scar. She steeled herself and walked up to the man. When she got closer, he lifted his hand while still facing the wall and she slowly reached down and touched his hand. She looked on with shock as she watched a yellow light come from his hand and she gasped loudly. The need to use the privy vanished completely. In fact, she felt better than she felt, well ever! There was no fatigue, no soreness, there was nothing except boundless energy! Selene was amazed. Who was this mage with such power! "Selene"
"Hmm?" The man responded.
"My name is Selene."
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