Fantasy Farewell to Kings: Temple of Hyxia

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec saw her expression change, and the desire to kill draining out of her along with her tears in the rain. He listened to her heartbeat, and heard it slow down. She wasn’t anxiously waiting to drive the dagger into him anymore. He lowered his weapon.
“The Father didn’t order my death. You were trying to intimidate me, correct? He takes too much pleasure in beating me to have someone like you do his dirty work.”

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

"I-I-" was all she managed to get out before sobbing. She ran to him, latching her arms around his legs.

"I'm sorry," she wailed, looking up at Lautrec, "I know I'm a horrible person. I shouldn't have done that. But I know you think I'm useless, and burdensome, and-"

 

[Jodyguru]

The hunter thought for a moment how she could easily drive the knife into him while she ran towards him. He prepared, but never saw the knife. Instead the wet and sobbing girl clutched him tightly for comfort. He raised his arms up, unsure of what to do with himself. He let out a long sigh. The crying gave him a headache he didn’t want to come.

“Please... stop... crying” he forced out of his mouth. At this point he just wanted to get somewhere dry. He also realized a lot of this was his fault for the way he behaves. She really wasn’t a hardcore assassin, but for a moment he believed it.

“You’ll catch illness in this rain, and that would truly impact our objective. Everything else you’ve said can be remedied with training and experience. I never called you useless. I simply prefer working alone. That’s reflective of me, not you.”

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She sniffed loudly, "I-I....okay". Letting go of his legs, she pulled a map from her satchel.

"There should be an inn, not too far from here, " she said, pointing down the road,"it's called the Cantering Pony. Let's go there for the night."

And with that she began to walk down the road, her head buried in the map.

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec resigned with a sigh and waved a purple hand in the air to make the disc appear again over her head. The rain didn’t bother him. Only sunlight did. He sheathed his weapons and followed her down the street. He didn’t want to use a disguise spell, but she left him no choice by the time they reached the inn.
She’d surely hear him casting as he was speaking lowly in dragon tongue. He changed his face and eyes to make him appear more alive. Red cheeks, green eyes, and a bit of gray in his black hair. By the time she entered the inn, she wouldn’t recognize the man following her inside.

“Ah, a room for two? You’re soaking wet, dear and Sir!” An older lady who was managing the inn tonight spoke when they entered. The floating disc vanished as well.

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She nodded, presenting the woman with a few coins, "Yes please! Unless he wants his own room, I don't mind sharing with him tho-" her speech came to a sudden halt at the sight of this stranger behind her, a man of handsome features draped in black. Ebony hair tinted with gray, cheeks red and green eyes dark and brooding, he carried an air of authority and mystery that was alike that of Lautrec, but he appeared more....alive.

"W-where did he go?!" she frowned, "He didn't run off, did he?"

 

[Jodyguru]

The man chuckled warmly. It was an act he despised putting on, but it made transactions go smoother.

“Oh Rhi, it was humorous during dinner but now I’m worried I AM invisible.” It was Lautrec’s voice, and if she was looking behind him, she’d see the patch of short hair where he cut during their battle.

“One room will be fine. I hate to ask but could we get some extra towels? I have to dry off before my steel turns to rust.”
The maiden nodded with enthusiasm and handed him the key.

“Come along Ms. Toccash. You’re going to catch a cold in that dress.” He guided her towards the stairs and started towards their inn room. Once they were out of sight she’d see the color leave his face and hair. He was the same cold, pale blue as before. The smile he wore in front of the maiden didn’t disappear as quickly.

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

"By the sun goddess, you can smile?" she huffed, surprised. She had stiffened when Lautrec's voice fell from the man's lips, but after seeing a cut patch of hair peeping out from under his hat. What surprised her, even more, was how warm he acted, as if he could be....human, or at least someone with feelings.

"T-that girl was eyeing you, you know. If you kept that act up, I bet you'd have a wife by tomorrow morning," she blurted out, grasping for something to say. She blushed at the statement, laughing awkwardly. You really are an idiot, she thought to herself.

"A-anyway! Since when did you care about my health?!"

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec kept smiling while she talked. The older lady reminded him of somebody he knew a long time ago.

He stopped at the door when she expressed his regard for her wellbeing.

“We are partners, are we not? Your health is a concern to me for the success of the mission.” He unlocked the door and stepped inside. In his thoughts he considered the consequences for abandoning her or letting her die. Surely the Count as well as others would come for his head.

There was a straw bed and a folded cot laying against the wall. The room was simple but it did have a bureau and vanity, and a window overlooking the stormy harbor.

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

"Er...who's going to change first?" she asked awkwardly, sifting through the contents of her satchel for dry cloths.

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec didn’t listen. He opened the cot and laid his gear down on it. He hung his wet cloak on a hook to dry and slipped out of his dark leather cuirass. His body was thin and covered in scars. The entirety of his back looked like it was peeled off and adhered back on in strips.

“I’m roughly a hundred and twenty years old, and I hardly have any blood. I believe you’re safer with me here than being alone. If it makes you feel better I’ll stare at the wall until you’re done.” He already had his back to her and was staring at the wall while wearing damp leggings.

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She frowned, "What on earth does your age and whether or not you have blood have to do with you being a pervert?" she muttered, turning her back to him. She shimmied out of her wet clothes, changing into a pair of dry pants, pulling her blouse over her head only to get it caught on her horns.

She cursed, biting her lip, "U-um...a little help please?"

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec turned. “Help with wh-“ he stopped, wide eyed at what was the problem. He quickly composed himself and moved to her aid, unhooking the horn from her blouse and pulling it off.

He wasn’t aware, but she’d see a tinge of dark blue on his cheeks. He turned and quickly walked to his cot.
“I uhm, think we ought to strategize our journey to Red Hawk. When you’re done getting ready for bed of course.”

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She let out a sigh, pulling on a dry blouse and wrapping a cloth belt around her waist.

"Thanks," she said to her companion, unwinding her hair from the messy bun she had made earlier that day, "I agree.

But first, I want to sleep." She pounced onto the cot, looking back at him, "Well I guess you get the straw then, hm?"

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec stuck out his hand and gasped but she was already laying on top of his swords and other possessions.
He let out the biggest sigh and put both hands together like a prayer.
“Please get off of my sword.” He asked sternly.

She saw he had a canteen full of gasoline, another canteen of water. A survival knife, compass, hourglass, and three different country’s worth of currency. He also carried a tactical shovel that folded its head out.

This and his silver scimitar were the sum of his things.

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She ignored him and adjusted so that she lay on the soft cloth of the bed. Picking up the sword, she studied it for a bit.

"This is really old," she said after a few seconds, tracing the pattern on its hilt, "What are you, a bounty hunter of some sort?" She picked up the compass, fiddling with it.

 

[Jodyguru]

“I’m an antique as well as a bounty hunter. It’s the only life where I have any value to society.”

After saying this, the hunter started thinking back to the days of the whippings. There was a dry tunic in the bureau and he wore it. It was green.

Covering himself relieved the stress. He could calmly return and ask for his sword back.
“It’s made of silver. I often boasted in my youth that I killed more vampires than the Church” He chuckled a little darkly.
“It was crafted by a man named Lautrec. He gave me his name when he died, as well as his sword.”

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

"Huh. Is that why your back looks like a desert wolf shredded it to pieces? Because you were a fighter?" she had pretended not to have noticed the scars at first, but curiosity had gotten the better of her. She swung it in the air, "Do you think I could become an epic fighter too?"

 

[Jodyguru]

“A beast of one type or another. I had a rude encounter with some lashwhip scorpions a year ago.”

His amusement went away when she started swinging his sword around. He grabbed it and quickly pulled it free from her grasp.
“Lesson one: respect people’s privacy. Lesson two: Respect your elders.” He said it with such ease and flow that she knew it was something he memorized.
“And lesson three, stop crying.”

-Next Day-

Lautrec prodded the girl awake at the crack of dawn. It was time for them to get going.

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She was having a good dream.

It was her birthday. Her 6th. Her family was gathered around her cheering and singing folk songs, her father playing a wooden flute as her mother danced, flying across the floor like a bird. She was sitting on her grandmother's lap, clapping in time with the drums that were being pounded by her older brothers.

"Grandmama, I wish this lasted forever!" she grinned. Her grandmother smiled, poking her cheek, "Of course you do silly."

She turned her head to watch the festivities but the poking didn't stop, "Grandmama, wha-" her eyes opened to the face of a man, thin and pale. For a second she didn't recognize him and....she screamed. Suddenly remembering, she looked at him guiltily, "Sorry Lautrec."

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec looked irritated already. He was fully dressed in black attire and ready to go.
“Must you do that at this hour?” He yawned. Lautrec had been awake all night plotting a course for them to take on a small hand drawn map.
“Get up and get dressed. Your training starts today.”

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

"Training?! I don't need training!" she huffed, grumpy. She rolled away from his frowning face, facing the small window next to the cot. She squinted in the sunlight, her eyes adjusting to the brightness.

"You're not gonna get me out of bed!" she burrowed further into the blankets, closing her eyes.

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec sighed and went to the foot of the bed, ripping off the sheets and tossing them to the floor.
“You couldn’t follow simple orders to stay out of my way last night. If I was someone else facing against that letter opener of yours, you’d be dead. If you want to be an epic fighter, you have to show discipline. Now get up.”

 

[alwaystheOptimist]

She muttered something under her breath, glaring at him.

"Fine." She sat up, rubbing her arms for warmth as she got up to wash her face.

"What are we going to do for "training" anyway?"

 

[Jodyguru]

Lautrec dumped the basin water out the window when she was done with it.

“if I tell you now, you’ll whine about it. You’ll train the same way I did. Just remember the three lessons I mentioned last night.”