Sweet merciful god I’m sorry! What did I ever do to deserve this life of torment and hell?! Please, just end my suffering!
When I had thought ‘it’s fine even if I end up there half-dead’ that was tongue in cheek, not a god damn challenge to the heavens!
Rain, rain rain rain rain rain. I hate rain. I hate rain so much. I hate this journey, I hate the cold, I hate not being able to sleeeep. I hate myself for not running away from these lunatics faster or at least pressing to grab a god damn tent. Ahhhhhh! WHY?!
This journey is so fucking long! WHY?! First, oh, first it was fine, I thought. Fine, some rain, some cold, some misery, whatever. Not great, but oh look, at least I can douse the person who might try and actually kill me’s hate for a while. But oh no, it got worse. It got so much worse.
Why is there a damn storm here?! I’d be less wet if I went in a waterfall, less cold if I’d gone to the arctic, less tired if I’d been exsanguinated, and probably happier being dead!
“Achoo!”
And I caught a fucking cold. Ughhh.
“Bless you.” Tyler says. He sends me back a look of absolute sympathy. Fuck your sympathy, you damn asshole. I want a tent! And a blanket! And warm clothes!
It’s been… what a week? I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gotten less than 24 hours of sleep total during that time. Everything is trash and wet and soggy and blurry.
Suddenly, I feel a burst of second wind and shake off some of the misery fueled insanity. Ugh. This trip has been truly awful. I can honestly say, that if there is a rain god or goddess, I would punch them in the face. I might straight up kill a god of storms. The rain, wind, cold, fucking mud, and lack of sleep have been probably exactly 60% of my misery.
Now, the rest? I shudder as I see a sight that had caused me to nearly have a heart attack the first time I saw it. My eyes shake and I want to flee and flee fast.
Riary is coming. And she’s smiling.
Strangely, I had not been the only one to be absolutely terrified and horrified the first time Riary had turned around and smiled at me, of all creatures. Tyler had let out a gasp like a dying fish and Konahora had stood in front of me as if she would have to protect me from an attack. But no, she had simply looked at my clothes and offered to ‘dry them’ for me.
I wasn’t born yesterday and was moments before politely refusing before I nearly punched myself in the face. What the hell was I doing?! Politely refusing, when she’s a had look of rage and anger so deep that it reminded me of Selve?! Are you fucking crazy?! So I had instead agreed, hoping that some light burns on my body when she ‘dried my clothes’ would be enough to sate her.
But oh no, I had misjudged the situation. She had insisted that I needed to take my clothes off, in order for her to dry them. I had actually frowned at that, worried about where this was going. Some awkward moments behind a tree later and surprise surprise, my underwear was burnt into ashes with a very, very sickly sweet ‘Oops. Sorry.’
Well, now I understood the game a little better at least.
But oh boy, it had only gotten worse and worse and worse. Losing my only pair of underwear and going commando was a small price to pay. But it hadn’t stopped there, not at all. Later, she ‘accidentally’ dropped my food for the night, coating it in water. She would pull that trick again two days later, coating it in mud. She offered to give me a ‘warm’ place to sleep, going through the trouble of actually making a rock bed for me. I got to learn quickly what sleeping on a bed of coals felt like before the rain put them out. She had ‘offered’ to watch my back while I went to the bathroom behind a tree, saying it could be dangerous in the woods. Only to startle me when she had looked over and let out a laugh right next to me, saying “small”.
If there was any possible way for her to make my life worse, and this trip worse, she found a way. Normally, I feel like I could withstand and survive such torment.
Normally.
But combined with my own misery from the storm… I was starting to develop an incredible fear of this small angry mage that eclipsed the time she nearly killed me 100 fold. And like any person doing something fun, she was pushing how far she could go. Since I was realistically a prisoner and at her mercy, short of assault…. Okay, maybe not even then… I was kind of helpless to whatever ways she could find to torment or torture me.
So as she smiled like a predator and came near me, I thanked the lucky second wind I had gotten and hardened my heart. Yesterday, she ‘accidentally’ tripped me into a particular bush and I got to learn that sadly, I could still itch. That still stung even now. Fantasy poison ivy was a bitch.
“G-Good morning Riary.”
“Morning Demon.” There was no kindness there, in fact, there was a particular form of extreme malicious glee that sent my heart sinking into despair. “I took the time to get you your morning water.”
She handed out the canteen to me. The thing is… all our food and water were on Tyler’s back…
I grabbed the canteen. It felt warm. My eyebrows shot up. A warm canteen wasn’t too much of a surprise, not really. She probably just handed me straight up mud or boiling water, not- she wouldn’t have-
I took a slight smell of it and my mouth dropped open in shock.
“Oh come on…”
My words of despair only seemed to make her happier.
“Drink it.”
“Look… can’t you just throw some fireballs at me? You know, I don’t think I even need both arms-”
“Drink. It.” Her face was now slowly starting to morph into her real feelings, ie, namely a nearly crazy amount of pure fucking rage and hatred, being coated by sadistic joy.
It was pee. She had straight up handed me her god damn piss to drink. This, this was too far. This was way too far. I couldn’t! I wasn’t going to-
She glared me down.
I didn’t consider refusing, I considered whether I was going to survive doing so. Yes. Yes, she probably wouldn’t succeed in killing me and I had my god damn limits. What would I stand to gain, what would I stand to lose?
I’d gain not having to drink fucking god damn piss.
I’d also ‘gain’ her anger and hatred. Well, the active form of it. Would she kill me? No. Selve? Also probably not. Would she make my life even more miserable than it already was? Literally fucking how?
Just as I was about to politely decline, I caught an absolute horrible sight behind Riary. Konahora was looking at us, pointing at me, and miming the drinking motion. What. What?! No! Why?! I thought we were cool Konahora!
Riary noticed my gaze, only to turn in a huff and glare at Konahora, who just smiled innocently. She turned back around and any hint of a smile was wiped off her face, scattered like it was never there.
I closed my eyes. I don’t get it Konahora, but you saved my life and you’ve been the only one to really talk to me this whole trip. If you want me to… there’s got to be a reason right? A really, really good reason? You saved my life…. God damn it. Fuck.
“T…Thank. You.” I gritted out. I gathered my courage, mentally prepared myself, and drank. My tongue felt the bitter taste wash over me and I couldn’t help but gag and fight to not puke. Hot urine poured down my throat and assaulted my taste buds. Fucking vile. Not even the taste necessarily, though that wasn’t pleasant, just the act itself was disgusting.
I was too busy spitting and struggling not to just throw mud into my mouth to notice Riary but I could practically feel her sadistic gaze. I was leaning against a tree, still spitting, when I saw another canteen enter into my vision. I nearly knocked it away and lashed out, before noticing it was Konahora. I grabbed the canteen, prayed for the best, and was relieved when this one was just normal water. After taking a drink and getting the taste out of my mouth, I looked back at Konahora, seeing Riary in the distance, talking happily to Tyler.
“Why?”
“Riary hates and despises demons to a dangerously unhealthy degree. I worry her rage will get her killed one day. Her sadism towards you is a positive emotion, and one I would like her to explore for a while longer, to hopefully help ground her hatred should she run into more powerful demons in the future.”
“Right. Got it. You want me to be her god damn punching bag. Awesome.” I glared at her. A man has limits, being forced to drink piss had crossed a line for me. I had done it because I thought you had a good reason. This wasn’t that.
She smiled gently at me, despite my bitter and angry tone. “Thank you for helping me.” She looked back to the other two, slowly getting further away as they continued to walk. “I’m a fair bit older than those two and I’m meant to help make sure they grow up well. One is filled with unhealthy hatred, the other is very ignorant of the world. Meeting you has been a good experience for them both.”
“Happy to help.” I said in a tone that made it very clear I wasn’t at all happy to help. Character growth? Don’t use me for that! Give them some magazines of hot, scantily clad demons and a room alone if you want to do that! I’m sure they’ll come out with confused feelings about them in no time, you damn mentor.
She looked back at me. “The world has dealt you an unfair hand. But I do think you should consider yourself lucky. A demon summoned in any other part of the human kingdom would have had a much harder time surviving.”
“What a shitty way of looking at things. By that logic, if I was summoned in demon territory, I would have lived the good life. Comparisons like that are just trying to make others feel better, even if they are technically true. Go fuck yourself.”
“You are angry at me?”
I sighed. “No, not really. Well, a bit. You did just convince me to drink fucking piss. Just… it’s been a long, long trip already. Tyler does nothing but glance at me nervously as if he’s on a tightrope trying not to fall and we both know what Riary is doing. Add in the storm and apparently, you’re willing to have me suffer if it benefits those two, not the most pleasant of journeys.”
She nodded and we continued our walk.
“I will help you more once we reach the elven kingdom as repayment for your assistance during this journey.”
“Fair. Fine.”
Part of me wanted to remind myself that I was in no real position to ask or demand anything, and needed to take anything and everything I was given to continue to survive. That part of me could go fuck itself. Caution and Cowardice are ground down by misery and I was about ready to punch Riary and damn the consequences. Some promise of help in the elven kingdom seemed like a good compensation. After all, once I got there, I’d be a broke beggar basically. Just a small bag of money alone would do wonders for me once I reached there.
My gaze looked towards the back of Riary and Tyler. They seemed to be in higher spirits than normal, actually having a conversation, as if they had forgotten about us. Despite the shitty everything, I felt myself letting out a breath of relief. It was nice to just walk with Konahora and not be worried about anything in particular. She wasn’t evil, she was honest, and she was quiet. Pretty much the definition of peace.
“Have you given more thought to what you will do in the elven kingdom?”
“Why do you want to know?” I was genuinely curious, she had asked me to way too many times at this point.
“You are lost, I enjoy giving guidance to those who need it. Sometimes.”
I frowned at that. Then sighed. Well, she wasn’t wrong. I was still kinda untethered. Everything felt, floaty for the lack of a better term. I didn’t have any real connections or anything to ground myself really. I could be transported to a whole nother world and would have lost very little from that exchange at this point in time.
“I’ve been thinking about it more…. I think I’d like to go on more journeys. Maybe. After settling down a bit, but who knows about any of that? And I’ve got a few things I’ve been thinking about looking into…”
“Would you like to share them?”
I smiled brightly at her.
“No.”
.
.
.
The days passed and thankfully, I was in double luck and then triple luck. The storm seemed to finally break and I got the first good sleep that I had had in a long, long while. Riary seemed to have reached some kind of peak sadism from that last act and at least temporarily seemed to stop tormenting me at every single turn.
And then finally, the first village on the way appeared on the horizon as the sun was slowly rising.
Hopefully it would be better off than the last village I had been… near?
As I started to feel my power sensor go haywire, I knew I had doomed us all by tempting fate.
Sweet merciful god I’m sorry! What did I ever do to deserve this life of torment and hell?! Please, just end my suffering!
When I had thought ‘it’s fine even if I end up there half-dead’ that was tongue in cheek, not a god damn challenge to the heavens!
Rain, rain rain rain rain rain. I hate rain. I hate rain so much. I hate this journey, I hate the cold, I hate not being able to sleeeep. I hate myself for not running away from these lunatics faster or at least pressing to grab a god damn tent. Ahhhhhh! WHY?!
This journey is so fucking long! WHY?! First, oh, first it was fine, I thought. Fine, some rain, some cold, some misery, whatever. Not great, but oh look, at least I can douse the person who might try and actually kill me’s hate for a while. But oh no, it got worse. It got so much worse.
Why is there a damn storm here?! I’d be less wet if I went in a waterfall, less cold if I’d gone to the arctic, less tired if I’d been exsanguinated, and probably happier being dead!
“Achoo!”
And I caught a fucking cold. Ughhh.
“Bless you.” Tyler says. He sends me back a look of absolute sympathy. Fuck your sympathy, you damn asshole. I want a tent! And a blanket! And warm clothes!
It’s been… what a week? I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gotten less than 24 hours of sleep total during that time. Everything is trash and wet and soggy and blurry.
Suddenly, I feel a burst of second wind and shake off some of the misery fueled insanity. Ugh. This trip has been truly awful. I can honestly say, that if there is a rain god or goddess, I would punch them in the face. I might straight up kill a god of storms. The rain, wind, cold, fucking mud, and lack of sleep have been probably exactly 60% of my misery.
Now, the rest? I shudder as I see a sight that had caused me to nearly have a heart attack the first time I saw it. My eyes shake and I want to flee and flee fast.
Riary is coming. And she’s smiling.
Strangely, I had not been the only one to be absolutely terrified and horrified the first time Riary had turned around and smiled at me, of all creatures. Tyler had let out a gasp like a dying fish and Konahora had stood in front of me as if she would have to protect me from an attack. But no, she had simply looked at my clothes and offered to ‘dry them’ for me.
I wasn’t born yesterday and was moments before politely refusing before I nearly punched myself in the face. What the hell was I doing?! Politely refusing, when she’s a had look of rage and anger so deep that it reminded me of Selve?! Are you fucking crazy?! So I had instead agreed, hoping that some light burns on my body when she ‘dried my clothes’ would be enough to sate her.
But oh no, I had misjudged the situation. She had insisted that I needed to take my clothes off, in order for her to dry them. I had actually frowned at that, worried about where this was going. Some awkward moments behind a tree later and surprise surprise, my underwear was burnt into ashes with a very, very sickly sweet ‘Oops. Sorry.’
Well, now I understood the game a little better at least.
But oh boy, it had only gotten worse and worse and worse. Losing my only pair of underwear and going commando was a small price to pay. But it hadn’t stopped there, not at all. Later, she ‘accidentally’ dropped my food for the night, coating it in water. She would pull that trick again two days later, coating it in mud. She offered to give me a ‘warm’ place to sleep, going through the trouble of actually making a rock bed for me. I got to learn quickly what sleeping on a bed of coals felt like before the rain put them out. She had ‘offered’ to watch my back while I went to the bathroom behind a tree, saying it could be dangerous in the woods. Only to startle me when she had looked over and let out a laugh right next to me, saying “small”.
If there was any possible way for her to make my life worse, and this trip worse, she found a way. Normally, I feel like I could withstand and survive such torment.
Normally.
But combined with my own misery from the storm… I was starting to develop an incredible fear of this small angry mage that eclipsed the time she nearly killed me 100 fold. And like any person doing something fun, she was pushing how far she could go. Since I was realistically a prisoner and at her mercy, short of assault…. Okay, maybe not even then… I was kind of helpless to whatever ways she could find to torment or torture me.
So as she smiled like a predator and came near me, I thanked the lucky second wind I had gotten and hardened my heart. Yesterday, she ‘accidentally’ tripped me into a particular bush and I got to learn that sadly, I could still itch. That still stung even now. Fantasy poison ivy was a bitch.
“G-Good morning Riary.”
“Morning Demon.” There was no kindness there, in fact, there was a particular form of extreme malicious glee that sent my heart sinking into despair. “I took the time to get you your morning water.”
She handed out the canteen to me. The thing is… all our food and water were on Tyler’s back…
I grabbed the canteen. It felt warm. My eyebrows shot up. A warm canteen wasn’t too much of a surprise, not really. She probably just handed me straight up mud or boiling water, not- she wouldn’t have-
I took a slight smell of it and my mouth dropped open in shock.
“Oh come on…”
My words of despair only seemed to make her happier.
“Drink it.”
“Look… can’t you just throw some fireballs at me? You know, I don’t think I even need both arms-”
“Drink. It.” Her face was now slowly starting to morph into her real feelings, ie, namely a nearly crazy amount of pure fucking rage and hatred, being coated by sadistic joy.
It was pee. She had straight up handed me her god damn piss to drink. This, this was too far. This was way too far. I couldn’t! I wasn’t going to-
She glared me down.
I didn’t consider refusing, I considered whether I was going to survive doing so. Yes. Yes, she probably wouldn’t succeed in killing me and I had my god damn limits. What would I stand to gain, what would I stand to lose?
I’d gain not having to drink fucking god damn piss.
I’d also ‘gain’ her anger and hatred. Well, the active form of it. Would she kill me? No. Selve? Also probably not. Would she make my life even more miserable than it already was? Literally fucking how?
Just as I was about to politely decline, I caught an absolute horrible sight behind Riary. Konahora was looking at us, pointing at me, and miming the drinking motion. What. What?! No! Why?! I thought we were cool Konahora!
Riary noticed my gaze, only to turn in a huff and glare at Konahora, who just smiled innocently. She turned back around and any hint of a smile was wiped off her face, scattered like it was never there.
I closed my eyes. I don’t get it Konahora, but you saved my life and you’ve been the only one to really talk to me this whole trip. If you want me to… there’s got to be a reason right? A really, really good reason? You saved my life…. God damn it. Fuck.
“T…Thank. You.” I gritted out. I gathered my courage, mentally prepared myself, and drank. My tongue felt the bitter taste wash over me and I couldn’t help but gag and fight to not puke. Hot urine poured down my throat and assaulted my taste buds. Fucking vile. Not even the taste necessarily, though that wasn’t pleasant, just the act itself was disgusting.
I was too busy spitting and struggling not to just throw mud into my mouth to notice Riary but I could practically feel her sadistic gaze. I was leaning against a tree, still spitting, when I saw another canteen enter into my vision. I nearly knocked it away and lashed out, before noticing it was Konahora. I grabbed the canteen, prayed for the best, and was relieved when this one was just normal water. After taking a drink and getting the taste out of my mouth, I looked back at Konahora, seeing Riary in the distance, talking happily to Tyler.
“Why?”
“Riary hates and despises demons to a dangerously unhealthy degree. I worry her rage will get her killed one day. Her sadism towards you is a positive emotion, and one I would like her to explore for a while longer, to hopefully help ground her hatred should she run into more powerful demons in the future.”
“Right. Got it. You want me to be her god damn punching bag. Awesome.” I glared at her. A man has limits, being forced to drink piss had crossed a line for me. I had done it because I thought you had a good reason. This wasn’t that.
She smiled gently at me, despite my bitter and angry tone. “Thank you for helping me.” She looked back to the other two, slowly getting further away as they continued to walk. “I’m a fair bit older than those two and I’m meant to help make sure they grow up well. One is filled with unhealthy hatred, the other is very ignorant of the world. Meeting you has been a good experience for them both.”
“Happy to help.” I said in a tone that made it very clear I wasn’t at all happy to help. Character growth? Don’t use me for that! Give them some magazines of hot, scantily clad demons and a room alone if you want to do that! I’m sure they’ll come out with confused feelings about them in no time, you damn mentor.
She looked back at me. “The world has dealt you an unfair hand. But I do think you should consider yourself lucky. A demon summoned in any other part of the human kingdom would have had a much harder time surviving.”
“What a shitty way of looking at things. By that logic, if I was summoned in demon territory, I would have lived the good life. Comparisons like that are just trying to make others feel better, even if they are technically true. Go fuck yourself.”
“You are angry at me?”
I sighed. “No, not really. Well, a bit. You did just convince me to drink fucking piss. Just… it’s been a long, long trip already. Tyler does nothing but glance at me nervously as if he’s on a tightrope trying not to fall and we both know what Riary is doing. Add in the storm and apparently, you’re willing to have me suffer if it benefits those two, not the most pleasant of journeys.”
She nodded and we continued our walk.
“I will help you more once we reach the elven kingdom as repayment for your assistance during this journey.”
“Fair. Fine.”
Part of me wanted to remind myself that I was in no real position to ask or demand anything, and needed to take anything and everything I was given to continue to survive. That part of me could go fuck itself. Caution and Cowardice are ground down by misery and I was about ready to punch Riary and damn the consequences. Some promise of help in the elven kingdom seemed like a good compensation. After all, once I got there, I’d be a broke beggar basically. Just a small bag of money alone would do wonders for me once I reached there.
My gaze looked towards the back of Riary and Tyler. They seemed to be in higher spirits than normal, actually having a conversation, as if they had forgotten about us. Despite the shitty everything, I felt myself letting out a breath of relief. It was nice to just walk with Konahora and not be worried about anything in particular. She wasn’t evil, she was honest, and she was quiet. Pretty much the definition of peace.
“Have you given more thought to what you will do in the elven kingdom?”
“Why do you want to know?” I was genuinely curious, she had asked me to way too many times at this point.
“You are lost, I enjoy giving guidance to those who need it. Sometimes.”
I frowned at that. Then sighed. Well, she wasn’t wrong. I was still kinda untethered. Everything felt, floaty for the lack of a better term. I didn’t have any real connections or anything to ground myself really. I could be transported to a whole nother world and would have lost very little from that exchange at this point in time.
“I’ve been thinking about it more…. I think I’d like to go on more journeys. Maybe. After settling down a bit, but who knows about any of that? And I’ve got a few things I’ve been thinking about looking into…”
“Would you like to share them?”
I smiled brightly at her.
“No.”
.
.
.
The days passed and thankfully, I was in double luck and then triple luck. The storm seemed to finally break and I got the first good sleep that I had had in a long, long while. Riary seemed to have reached some kind of peak sadism from that last act and at least temporarily seemed to stop tormenting me at every single turn.
And then finally, the first village on the way appeared on the horizon as the sun was slowly rising.
Hopefully it would be better off than the last village I had been… near?
As I started to feel my power sensor go haywire, I knew I had doomed us all by tempting fate.
