Drake took one more look around the camp and the people he’d torn apart last night, then away. “Time to head to that town, Anna. Heartrow. Do you know the way?”
“Heart Grove, lord. And I do. But I can’t just leave Robby all alone here.”
“Who’s Robby?” Was there another captive here?
“My best friend in the whole world, lord! He’s the one who gives me orders when I have to leave Daddy in the cage.”
Drake hadn’t left a single person alive in this camp, so Robby obviously wasn’t someone living. Maybe a stuffed animal or something? Either way, if “Robby” would keep her calm on the trip home, it might be a good idea to humor her. “Where is he?”
“He sleeps in the captain’s tent, lord. I’ll find him. Won’t be long!”
She scampered off without a look back. Her father, meanwhile, cowered beside the cage. Drake knew Anna would never leave her father, so he allowed her to run off. He also realized he shouldn’t walk into town covered in blood looking like he’d just wolfed out.
There were a good number of dead soldiers here. Between all the bodies, he should be able to put together one intact set of clothing and maybe even some new armor for the road. As nice as it would be to wash off the blood and grime in the stream, more Redbow soldiers could show up at any time. He didn’t want to be naked in a stream when that happened.
Come to think of it, he should check the nearest bodies for weapons and coins as well. He had no money at the moment, and he’d likely need some way to pay for food and a place to sleep in Heart Grove. So while he let Anna find Robby, he’d do a bit of looting as well.
Looting dead bodies was less difficult than he expected. They didn’t fight back, and he didn’t really think of them as people any longer. They did all smell though. They smelled bad. The whole time he searched bodies he searched himself for guilt and found only mild regret.
Lydia had said everyone reacted to the aftermath of a battle where they killed people differently. Apparently, Drake’s default reaction was “mild regret”. Given it now seemed more obvious than ever he couldn’t always spare his enemies in this world, he’d take it.
Soon enough, he’d wriggled on a fresh pair of muddy pants that were almost his size. He also wore a pale undershirt with only a small smattering of blood on it. Finally, he’d found enough intact pieces of that light red armor to throw together a halfway decent suit of it, and even some boots that almost fit.
He hadn’t been sure if he could get into the armor, but it helped that Lydia had taught him how to put on feathersteel. This red stuff was easier to put on, though it did hang looser than his feathersteel had that night in the woods. Probably because he couldn’t tighten all the straps by himself.
Still, he did look like a disorganized Redbow soldier now... and not a bloody werewolf. This was a good look for traveling in Redbow country. And thanks to his phenomenal bullshit powers, if any other Redbow soldiers questioned him, he could make them believe anything.
After he was dressed, Drake selected a loaded crossbow from those available and rounded up all the bolts he could stuff in his new pockets. He also grabbed a club, because there was no good reason not to carry around a club. He gathered quite a few coins as well.
It took a good while to do all the looting. It took much longer in real life than in video games. Where was Anna? Had she faked him out again and run for it?
“Lord!” Anna called as she hurried into view dragging a wooden puppet. “I’m back!”
So Anna had gone all the way to Ro’s tent to get a puppet? That meant a wooden puppet was her only friend. That just made her story all the sadder.
As Anna approached, she lifted the puppet high. “Robby’s safe!”
As Drake examined the puppet, he realized it had sparkly green eyes. Some kind of cheap gems. He suddenly recalled his interrogation of Anna in his manor.
“It is you! I knew you’d come and help me!”
“Why don’t we start with who told you that?”
“The puppet with the emerald eyes, lord. Besides Daddy, he’s my only friend.”
So that was how Captain Ro snuck around Anna’s inability to lie. Ro had puppeted this stupid doll like a ventriloquist dummy when he told her who he wanted her to teleport. That way, Anna could honestly say the puppet had sent her if her quarry asked.
That was a deeply fucked up thing to do to a child, but rather clever. People in this world must have found all sorts of ways to get around the fact that they couldn’t lie. He needed to stop assuming that simply because they had to tell the truth, they couldn’t deceive him.
And speaking of Ro’s tent... he should have a look in Ro’s tent before he left. There might be some clue inside as to who had hired the man to abduct him. He’d like to gather up Lydia, Emily, and Olivia and personally thank whoever had sent him this invitation.
“Anna, show me where Captain Ro’s tent is.”
“Of course, lord! Follow me! Daddy, you come too. No lollygagging!”
Drake glanced at the man, then motioned impatiently. Dad walked drunkenly after Anna, who was already moving into the muddy camp. She skipped past the bodies he’d left sprawled everywhere. Was she so traumatized she didn’t even see them as people?
They passed a number of other tents, some intact and many collapsed. The place hadn’t burned down last night, but he’d murdered every single soldier who didn’t flee. That’d teach them to... be mercenaries. He poked his head into Ro’s tent and took a quick look around.
Ro had a nice fluffy sleeping bag which Drake briefly considered stealing, but he’d already looted enough coins to buy his own. He’d have to ask Anna what was worth what on the road. He saw no weapons, but Ro had bequeathed him a small pouch and a large backpack.
“Anna, come inside and wait quietly.” He had to keep an eye on her. “Dad, wait outside.” He also didn’t need the old man hitting him in the back of the head with a shovel. If that happened, he’d probably wolf out and eat them both.
As Anna obeyed without question, Drake opened the dead captain’s pouch and grinned as he found a small stack of sealed letters. He ripped one open eagerly and then, as he scanned it, grimaced in annoyance. He couldn’t read these words. Was it code?
Maybe Zuri or someone else could break this code. He took the pouch for himself and tucked the letters into it. It was a nice pouch, and would also provide a good spot for all his new coins that was far better than the way he’d jammed them haphazardly into his pockets.
After he searched the backpack, which he found filled with what looked to be small preserved bits of cheese, jerky, and even a canteen, he picked it up and shrugged it on. It was a nice backpack, and while he was still nauseated, he might want to eat human food.
That is, eat food for humans. Not eat humans. He was done with eating humans.
He glanced at the little girl watching him a disturbing amount of hope in her eyes. “Time to lead me back to town, Anna. Then we’ll talk.”
“Will you take in Daddy too? I can’t live anywhere without him.”
“I will, Anna. I told you already.” Setting aside his own desire to continue to not be an asshole, he doubted Anna would want to do anything for him without her old man.
He’d take in her father as well. With therapy and a couple of years of not being routinely threatened with death, perhaps the old man could find some peace. Drake could hope.
“Once we all make it back to Gloomwood Manor together, you can all stay. Even Robby. But you have to show me how to get back there, and you also need to never trick me again.”
“I won’t, lord. I only tricked you that one time because I had to save Daddy.”
She couldn’t lie. He understood her desperate reasons and didn’t hold them against her. She could also make it up to him if her rarity was as powerful as it seemed.
“I forgive you,” Drake said. “Help me, and maybe we’ll become friends as well.”
Her eyes widened. “I’d love that, lord!”
“Now, let’s go. Can we reach Heart Grove before it gets dark?”
“Maybe soon after dark, lord. But we can try!”
Anna confidently led him out of the tent, and Drake snapped his fingers as the old man looked around in confusion. Anna led him down a muddy forest road at a pace that was leisurely and slow, but Daddy was already limping. Drake didn’t want to carry him.
He didn’t like being on this road. This was the same road any Redbow reinforcements might come riding up. Yet the forest to each side was too dense for them to make any progress, and if Heart Grove was this way, they needed to head to Heart Grove. He needed a town.
If he kept going the other way, they might not find a town and could still be run down by reinforcements. Also, this at least felt like the right way. Drake couldn’t be sure if it was more magic or just his imagination, but he felt like he was heading toward Gloomwood Manor.
It was long past noon, and Drake’s stomach was long past grumbling, when they finally made it out of the cursedly dense woods and back to the open plains he remembered from when he’d arrived in that cage last night. No reinforcements yet. So far so good.
The going would also be easier here, and all that tall grass would make a wonderful place to drop into if riders appeared. “Anna? We’re leaving the road.”
She glanced back at him. “But lord, this road leads right to Heart Grove!”
“That’s nice, but I don’t want to be ridden down by Redbow soldiers. Do you?”
She vigorously shook her head. “No, not at all.”
“So we’re going to head off the road and walk through the tall grass. We’ll keep the road in sight and use it to guide us. If I say drop, you drop into the grass. All right?”
“We don’t need to see the road, lord. I can lead us. Heart Grove is straight north!”
Drake wasn’t about to trust a traumatized ten-year-old’s sense of direction. “That’s fine, Anna, but I’d still like to keep the road in sight.” He glanced at her father, who was staring at his feet, then at Anna. “Does your father have a name?”
“Oh! Yes. His name is Jeremy.”
“Great. Jeremy, I need you to look at me.”
The man’s head rose. It turned. His eyes focused on Drake. Even with all that, Drake still felt Jeremy barely recognized he was there. What a fucking tragedy.
“We’re going to leave the road now,” Drake said. “We’ll take it slow.”
Jeremy simply nodded in tired assent. He’d likely learned to do a lot of that while Ro used him to motivate his precocious daughter. Someone had to cut this poor guy a break.
With a road in sight and no need to follow Anna, Drake took the lead. He led the little girl and her doddering old man into the tall grass and found it easy going. The tall grass was a bit of a scratchy nuisance, but his armor kept it at bay. The ground itself was fairly level.
As much as his grumbling stomach complained, he didn’t feel comfortable stopping for a snack. They had to reach a town and find somewhere to lay low until he found a way to get in touch with his people at Gloomwood Manor. That seemed the best approach.
Soon, Jeremy was visibly flagging despite Anna seeming unphased. She had said she walked for a full day to reach Gloomwood Manor. This little scamp had stamina. What was he going to do if the old man collapsed? Could they just camp out in the grass?
When the first arrow flew right past his eyes, Drake mentally cursed the world.
“Down!” Drake shouted.
Anna dropped flat. Jeremy stumbled onward, so Drake leapt on the old man and took him down before another arrow could impale either of them. “Stay down!” he ordered Jeremy.
Where was the shooter? It wasn’t even sunset yet, and the plains around him had been wide and open. There was nowhere for an archer to hide out here!
Anna crawled back to him, rustling grass. “What’s the matter?”
He glared at her. “Did you miss the killer arrow, Anna?”
“I didn’t see any arrow!”
Drake readied his crossbow and ground his teeth. He needed to see if he could spot their attackers, but not before he moved a little. He couldn’t pop up in the same place, but this was a big field. If he could get a shot off, maybe a crossbow bolt would discourage them.
He searched his insides for any trace of his rarity. Any trace of that familiar burning hunger to kill. This time, he felt nothing at all. So was that a good sign... or a bad one?
“Anna? If I die and you escape, I want you to go to Gloomwood Manor. Take Jeremy. Tell Lydia what happened and tell her I said she should take you two in. That’s an order.”
“But, lord!” Anna gasped. “I don’t want you to die!”
“Me neither, but it might be that kind of day. Stay.”
Now, he’d need to figure out how to kill an archer without killing everyone else.
Author's Note: Next week, Drake gets in a snowball fight, has an argument, and goes shopping.
Have a great weekend, folks!
Read Ahead on the Patreon!
Chat on the Discord!
Drake took one more look around the camp and the people he’d torn apart last night, then away. “Time to head to that town, Anna. Heartrow. Do you know the way?”
“Heart Grove, lord. And I do. But I can’t just leave Robby all alone here.”
“Who’s Robby?” Was there another captive here?
“My best friend in the whole world, lord! He’s the one who gives me orders when I have to leave Daddy in the cage.”
Drake hadn’t left a single person alive in this camp, so Robby obviously wasn’t someone living. Maybe a stuffed animal or something? Either way, if “Robby” would keep her calm on the trip home, it might be a good idea to humor her. “Where is he?”
“He sleeps in the captain’s tent, lord. I’ll find him. Won’t be long!”
She scampered off without a look back. Her father, meanwhile, cowered beside the cage. Drake knew Anna would never leave her father, so he allowed her to run off. He also realized he shouldn’t walk into town covered in blood looking like he’d just wolfed out.
There were a good number of dead soldiers here. Between all the bodies, he should be able to put together one intact set of clothing and maybe even some new armor for the road. As nice as it would be to wash off the blood and grime in the stream, more Redbow soldiers could show up at any time. He didn’t want to be naked in a stream when that happened.
Come to think of it, he should check the nearest bodies for weapons and coins as well. He had no money at the moment, and he’d likely need some way to pay for food and a place to sleep in Heart Grove. So while he let Anna find Robby, he’d do a bit of looting as well.
Looting dead bodies was less difficult than he expected. They didn’t fight back, and he didn’t really think of them as people any longer. They did all smell though. They smelled bad. The whole time he searched bodies he searched himself for guilt and found only mild regret.
Lydia had said everyone reacted to the aftermath of a battle where they killed people differently. Apparently, Drake’s default reaction was “mild regret”. Given it now seemed more obvious than ever he couldn’t always spare his enemies in this world, he’d take it.
Soon enough, he’d wriggled on a fresh pair of muddy pants that were almost his size. He also wore a pale undershirt with only a small smattering of blood on it. Finally, he’d found enough intact pieces of that light red armor to throw together a halfway decent suit of it, and even some boots that almost fit.
He hadn’t been sure if he could get into the armor, but it helped that Lydia had taught him how to put on feathersteel. This red stuff was easier to put on, though it did hang looser than his feathersteel had that night in the woods. Probably because he couldn’t tighten all the straps by himself.
Still, he did look like a disorganized Redbow soldier now... and not a bloody werewolf. This was a good look for traveling in Redbow country. And thanks to his phenomenal bullshit powers, if any other Redbow soldiers questioned him, he could make them believe anything.
After he was dressed, Drake selected a loaded crossbow from those available and rounded up all the bolts he could stuff in his new pockets. He also grabbed a club, because there was no good reason not to carry around a club. He gathered quite a few coins as well.
It took a good while to do all the looting. It took much longer in real life than in video games. Where was Anna? Had she faked him out again and run for it?
“Lord!” Anna called as she hurried into view dragging a wooden puppet. “I’m back!”
So Anna had gone all the way to Ro’s tent to get a puppet? That meant a wooden puppet was her only friend. That just made her story all the sadder.
As Anna approached, she lifted the puppet high. “Robby’s safe!”
As Drake examined the puppet, he realized it had sparkly green eyes. Some kind of cheap gems. He suddenly recalled his interrogation of Anna in his manor.
“It is you! I knew you’d come and help me!”
“Why don’t we start with who told you that?”
“The puppet with the emerald eyes, lord. Besides Daddy, he’s my only friend.”
So that was how Captain Ro snuck around Anna’s inability to lie. Ro had puppeted this stupid doll like a ventriloquist dummy when he told her who he wanted her to teleport. That way, Anna could honestly say the puppet had sent her if her quarry asked.
That was a deeply fucked up thing to do to a child, but rather clever. People in this world must have found all sorts of ways to get around the fact that they couldn’t lie. He needed to stop assuming that simply because they had to tell the truth, they couldn’t deceive him.
And speaking of Ro’s tent... he should have a look in Ro’s tent before he left. There might be some clue inside as to who had hired the man to abduct him. He’d like to gather up Lydia, Emily, and Olivia and personally thank whoever had sent him this invitation.
“Anna, show me where Captain Ro’s tent is.”
“Of course, lord! Follow me! Daddy, you come too. No lollygagging!”
Drake glanced at the man, then motioned impatiently. Dad walked drunkenly after Anna, who was already moving into the muddy camp. She skipped past the bodies he’d left sprawled everywhere. Was she so traumatized she didn’t even see them as people?
They passed a number of other tents, some intact and many collapsed. The place hadn’t burned down last night, but he’d murdered every single soldier who didn’t flee. That’d teach them to... be mercenaries. He poked his head into Ro’s tent and took a quick look around.
Ro had a nice fluffy sleeping bag which Drake briefly considered stealing, but he’d already looted enough coins to buy his own. He’d have to ask Anna what was worth what on the road. He saw no weapons, but Ro had bequeathed him a small pouch and a large backpack.
“Anna, come inside and wait quietly.” He had to keep an eye on her. “Dad, wait outside.” He also didn’t need the old man hitting him in the back of the head with a shovel. If that happened, he’d probably wolf out and eat them both.
As Anna obeyed without question, Drake opened the dead captain’s pouch and grinned as he found a small stack of sealed letters. He ripped one open eagerly and then, as he scanned it, grimaced in annoyance. He couldn’t read these words. Was it code?
Maybe Zuri or someone else could break this code. He took the pouch for himself and tucked the letters into it. It was a nice pouch, and would also provide a good spot for all his new coins that was far better than the way he’d jammed them haphazardly into his pockets.
After he searched the backpack, which he found filled with what looked to be small preserved bits of cheese, jerky, and even a canteen, he picked it up and shrugged it on. It was a nice backpack, and while he was still nauseated, he might want to eat human food.
That is, eat food for humans. Not eat humans. He was done with eating humans.
He glanced at the little girl watching him a disturbing amount of hope in her eyes. “Time to lead me back to town, Anna. Then we’ll talk.”
“Will you take in Daddy too? I can’t live anywhere without him.”
“I will, Anna. I told you already.” Setting aside his own desire to continue to not be an asshole, he doubted Anna would want to do anything for him without her old man.
He’d take in her father as well. With therapy and a couple of years of not being routinely threatened with death, perhaps the old man could find some peace. Drake could hope.
“Once we all make it back to Gloomwood Manor together, you can all stay. Even Robby. But you have to show me how to get back there, and you also need to never trick me again.”
“I won’t, lord. I only tricked you that one time because I had to save Daddy.”
She couldn’t lie. He understood her desperate reasons and didn’t hold them against her. She could also make it up to him if her rarity was as powerful as it seemed.
“I forgive you,” Drake said. “Help me, and maybe we’ll become friends as well.”
Her eyes widened. “I’d love that, lord!”
“Now, let’s go. Can we reach Heart Grove before it gets dark?”
“Maybe soon after dark, lord. But we can try!”
Anna confidently led him out of the tent, and Drake snapped his fingers as the old man looked around in confusion. Anna led him down a muddy forest road at a pace that was leisurely and slow, but Daddy was already limping. Drake didn’t want to carry him.
He didn’t like being on this road. This was the same road any Redbow reinforcements might come riding up. Yet the forest to each side was too dense for them to make any progress, and if Heart Grove was this way, they needed to head to Heart Grove. He needed a town.
If he kept going the other way, they might not find a town and could still be run down by reinforcements. Also, this at least felt like the right way. Drake couldn’t be sure if it was more magic or just his imagination, but he felt like he was heading toward Gloomwood Manor.
It was long past noon, and Drake’s stomach was long past grumbling, when they finally made it out of the cursedly dense woods and back to the open plains he remembered from when he’d arrived in that cage last night. No reinforcements yet. So far so good.
The going would also be easier here, and all that tall grass would make a wonderful place to drop into if riders appeared. “Anna? We’re leaving the road.”
She glanced back at him. “But lord, this road leads right to Heart Grove!”
“That’s nice, but I don’t want to be ridden down by Redbow soldiers. Do you?”
She vigorously shook her head. “No, not at all.”
“So we’re going to head off the road and walk through the tall grass. We’ll keep the road in sight and use it to guide us. If I say drop, you drop into the grass. All right?”
“We don’t need to see the road, lord. I can lead us. Heart Grove is straight north!”
Drake wasn’t about to trust a traumatized ten-year-old’s sense of direction. “That’s fine, Anna, but I’d still like to keep the road in sight.” He glanced at her father, who was staring at his feet, then at Anna. “Does your father have a name?”
“Oh! Yes. His name is Jeremy.”
“Great. Jeremy, I need you to look at me.”
The man’s head rose. It turned. His eyes focused on Drake. Even with all that, Drake still felt Jeremy barely recognized he was there. What a fucking tragedy.
“We’re going to leave the road now,” Drake said. “We’ll take it slow.”
Jeremy simply nodded in tired assent. He’d likely learned to do a lot of that while Ro used him to motivate his precocious daughter. Someone had to cut this poor guy a break.
With a road in sight and no need to follow Anna, Drake took the lead. He led the little girl and her doddering old man into the tall grass and found it easy going. The tall grass was a bit of a scratchy nuisance, but his armor kept it at bay. The ground itself was fairly level.
As much as his grumbling stomach complained, he didn’t feel comfortable stopping for a snack. They had to reach a town and find somewhere to lay low until he found a way to get in touch with his people at Gloomwood Manor. That seemed the best approach.
Soon, Jeremy was visibly flagging despite Anna seeming unphased. She had said she walked for a full day to reach Gloomwood Manor. This little scamp had stamina. What was he going to do if the old man collapsed? Could they just camp out in the grass?
When the first arrow flew right past his eyes, Drake mentally cursed the world.
“Down!” Drake shouted.
Anna dropped flat. Jeremy stumbled onward, so Drake leapt on the old man and took him down before another arrow could impale either of them. “Stay down!” he ordered Jeremy.
Where was the shooter? It wasn’t even sunset yet, and the plains around him had been wide and open. There was nowhere for an archer to hide out here!
Anna crawled back to him, rustling grass. “What’s the matter?”
He glared at her. “Did you miss the killer arrow, Anna?”
“I didn’t see any arrow!”
Drake readied his crossbow and ground his teeth. He needed to see if he could spot their attackers, but not before he moved a little. He couldn’t pop up in the same place, but this was a big field. If he could get a shot off, maybe a crossbow bolt would discourage them.
He searched his insides for any trace of his rarity. Any trace of that familiar burning hunger to kill. This time, he felt nothing at all. So was that a good sign... or a bad one?
“Anna? If I die and you escape, I want you to go to Gloomwood Manor. Take Jeremy. Tell Lydia what happened and tell her I said she should take you two in. That’s an order.”
“But, lord!” Anna gasped. “I don’t want you to die!”
“Me neither, but it might be that kind of day. Stay.”
Now, he’d need to figure out how to kill an archer without killing everyone else.
Author's Note: Next week, Drake gets in a snowball fight, has an argument, and goes shopping.
Have a great weekend, folks!
Read Ahead on the Patreon!
Chat on the Discord!
