Mythica, book 1, Chapter 9.

Chapter 9.

Sabine moved at her normal fast walk/slow jog pace that didn’t burn up too much of her energy. Occasionally she would slow down and walk slowly for a bit if she started to feel fatigued, and it was at one of those points that she realized someone was following her. They were huffing and puffing as they tried to catch up, and she only heard them now that she had slowed down.

It was dark, and she didn’t think whoever was following her had the same undead vision she enjoyed, so Sabine moved off the road and looked for some cover. The area she was traveling through was mostly open, with rolling hills and rocky ground with sparse vegetation. Snow covered much of the terrain, but the windswept and mostly open area didn’t allow for too many large mounds of snow to build up. Sabine found a good spot alongside the road where some brush had grown up through the snow. Crouching down, Sabine waited to see who was on her tail.

A lone man shuffled his way down the path, he appeared to be young and was skinny as a rail. Huffing and puffing as he hauled a large, heavy satchel over his shoulder, the man kept looking behind, his eyes wide with fear. From the darkness, two more men appeared. Sabine didn’t know them, but she knew their type, predators that had found what they thought was easy prey.

“Just drop your valuables Cavendish, and we might leave you alive,” one of the men said, drawing a shortsword as he approached.

“Hey, we can let him live, but we should at least cut him up a bit for all this work he’s making us do,” the other man said, drawing a long, curved dagger as he moved behind the young man.

“Gentlemen, this is all a misunderstanding, I merely needed your protection to get me to the site I indicated. Do that and I’d be glad to pay you for your efforts. My family is well known and harming me will not be in your best interest,” the young man, apparently named Cavendish, replied.

“Hey, that’s right, these Cavendish idiots sell a lot of books, maybe we can get some ransom out of him?” The man with the knife suggested.

“Nah, too much trouble, just stick him in the gut and take what we can, that way nobody will be the wiser and we don’t risk getting caught,” the man with the sword replied.

This wasn’t Sabine’s fight, but something about the young man reminded her of Kaban, the young caravan guard that had stood beside her at the end of her first life. She always hated those that victimized the weak, and while these two looked like rough characters, they didn’t exactly carry themselves like real fighters. With her skills and abilities, Sabine figured she was more than a match for the pair.

“The smart move for you two would be to head on back to where you came from,” Sabine said from the darkness.

“Who are you? Come out and show yourself,” the man with the knife said, as the pair looked into the darkness around them. Sabine’s undead eyes had no trouble in this light, and the limited moonlight only let the pair see a few yards. Sabine closed in on the one with the sword while she spoke.

“I’m not going to let you hurt this kid, and I’d rather not kill anyone else tonight, so be on your way you two,” Sabine warned as she drew her blades. For the first time, she tried infusing a bit of mana into each blade. Using restraint, Sabine tried to only let a trickle flow out, she didn’t need to drain all her mana reserves as she had in the first fight against the grave robbers. Unfortunately, the mana flowed roughly down her arm and she far more inefficient than she had hoped for.

“You out here by yourself lady? Might be dangerous, you should give us whatever valuables you have, and we’ll let you go,” the man with the sword threatened.

“I don’t give second chances, drop your blades and leave, or I will end you,” Sabine threatened. She moved as she spoke, keeping the pair from circling her.

“Get her, and then we’ll finish Cavendish,” the man with the sword said as he took an awkward step forward and thrust with his blade. Sabine slipped to the side, running the crude dagger in her left hand along the sword blade to keep it away from her body and at the same time opening the man up for a thrust of her other dagger. Unlike the crude blade in her left hand, the dagger that the man in the tavern had tried to skewer her with was made from good steel. It sunk through the man’s shirt and into his chest.

A black light flared over the blade as Sabine’s energy flowed through it. Mana infused the strike, more than she had wanted to use, but it did the job. The blade sank through bone and hit the man’s heart, dropping him with a single blow. Sabine’s other opponent rushed her when he saw her blade was stuck in the body of his ally. Sabine let go of the blade and infused mana into her hand. She blocked the incoming strike with her dagger in her left hand and landed a punch on the man’s arm. She could feel the bone break under the mana-infused strike, causing her assailant to gasp in pain and drop his dagger.

A quick thrust with the dagger in her left hand ended the second attacker’s life. It was almost comically easy, these fools had no idea how to fight and now that she was getting the hang of things, Sabine’s new body performed exactly as she commanded it to. It was almost like she had better control over this body than she had over her original one.

“Thank you, I knew these were some rough characters, but I didn’t realize they would resort to murder,” Cavendish said.

“Yeah, a lot of that going around lately,” Sabine said, glad she could stop this man from meeting the same fate as the owner of her body. She was glad to help but didn’t want to waste any more time with this guy.

“I don’t suppose you would be willing to take their place. I have work to do out here. My family will pay well for your services,” Cavendish offered.

“Sorry, I’ve got my own work to do tonight, and babysitting a clueless man in the wilderness isn’t on the agenda,” Sabine replied, taking time to snatch up the weapons and coin purse off her two victims.

Between the two men, she found twenty silver and a handful of copper. Both the blades they wielded were of decent quality, and better than what she had now. Sabine preferred the flail as a primary weapon but was well versed in using a short sword and a dagger in the offhand. The curved dagger on the second man was longer than the boot knife, giving her better reach. The old blade she had taken from the men in the graveyard was tossed aside, it wasn’t worth carrying around.

At least both the new knife and the short sword had crude sheaths to use, and the boot knife went back into her right boot as a backup weapon. Each man also had large burlap sacks, probably to fill with the loot of their victims. A coarse sharpening stone and some cheap weapon oil were also found. At least one of the pair had cared enough to try at maintain their weapons.

While Sabine worked, Cavendish kept yammering on about his personal quest. She wanted to get at the goblins and the promised bounty for dealing with them, but it wouldn’t hurt to see how much this Cavendish was willing to pay for her assistance. There was much Sabine still needed to buy and this Cavendish might have the coin to help her out if she helped him. Sabine was willing to do many things, but charity work for some fool out on the road wasn’t in the plan. He could pay well, or he could kick rocks.

“Well, you say you want my help, tell me what you can pay,” Sabine said.

“My family will generously reimburse you for your time and expense…” Cavendish said before she cut him off.

“Hold up, I’m not interested in some family member that might pay me in the future, I’m interested in real coin today,”

“But, I gave these men a fair price for escorting me safely to my destination. In fact, some of the coins you, er, liberated from them are likely mine,” Cavendish argued.

“Whatever they had on them is in my purse now, which means its mine. Consider it a fee for saving your life. If you want me to protect you out here, you better have something besides promises to offer,” Sabine said. The man set down the heavy satchel that he was carrying and pulled a small coin purse from a tied-down pocket. He flicked through the purse for a moment before speaking.

“I have nineteen silver and twenty-two copper on hand. I’ll have more when we return to the tavern where the next installment of my stipend will be delivered shortly. I’ll give you what I have and a promise of ten more silver if you escort me to a nearby location that I can show you on the map. Get me there and back safely is all I ask,” Cavendish offered.

“Show me where you want to go,” Sabine said. It wasn’t as much as Hammerhead’s bounty, but if it was a quick jaunt somewhere close, it could be easy money.

“Here, just to the east of us is the Farnwell Bog, it is rumored to hide a rather nasty creature I’d like to document,” Cavendish said.

“What? You want me to protect you while you seek out a dangerous creature in a bog, are you out of your mind?” Sabine said. While the journey wasn’t too far off her path toward Golden Harvest village, but tangling with some unknown creature for what this guy was offering was a firm no.

“No, I’m sorry, I’m not explaining myself well, I fear. You see, I don’t need to find the beast, just enter its local area where I can discern what it is and log it into the compendium,” Cavendish said.

“What kind of fool do you think I am?” Sabine replied, becoming more and more convinced this Cavendish was a crazy man.

“Oh, I took you for an adventurer, most of them know of my family due to our family business. I am Orren Cavendish, and I’ve been assigned to document and catalog the beasts and monsters of this area. My family creates the Cavendish Compendiums. Having one of our works for the area you’re adventuring in will save you a lot of grief,” Orren said.

“Show me,” Sabine replied, curious if this Orren Cavendish was a madman or if he really might have some sort of useful information.

“Well, I don’t have a complete collection and the Deira compendium is unfinished, hence my presence here. This is an older copy, the one that I’m attempting to update and expand upon,” Orren said, digging through the satchel he wore before handing a copy of a thin tome that was bound in leather for Sabine to peruse. She looked it over, flipping to a random page.

Deira Ogre. Similar to most of its kind, the ogres in Deira are typically solitary creatures that are content to hunt in a specific area unless driven away or when seeking a mate. Powerful in melee, ogres prefer to use bludgeoning weapons or their own hands when fighting. When threatened from afar, the ogre is known to throw objects at their foes with surprising power and accuracy.

Durable and hard to kill, the ogre also possesses a simple intellect, often learning a few words that it uses to torment its captives at times. They have a taste for humanoid flesh but will take any fresh meat when hungry. An ogre’s prodigious appetite drives its life, and they tend to lose what little intellect they possess when its hunger grows.

Tracking an ogre is not that difficult a task since its enormous weight leaves a trail on most surfaces. Weak points are at the joints, eyes, and under the armpit. A heavy bone structure and musculature make bludgeoning weapons less effective than piercing or slashing. A common tactic among adventuring parties is to concentrate on one of the ogre’s legs, either through direct attack or through the use of traps, thereby reducing its mobility and increasing the odds of a successful kill.

Possessing only minor intelligence, the ogre can sometimes be reasoned with or bribed. You will find them working with orcs and other violent species, and it is rumored that some kingdoms have a battalion of ogre warriors, though that information is suspect given the ogre's propensity to turn on its employers once it gets hungry or bored enough.

“I can see how this could be useful, but isn’t it a bit dangerous for someone who can’t defend themselves to take up this kind of career?” Sabine asked.

“It’s not that I had much choice, joining the family business is just expected of us. We do have the ability to learn much just from observing a creature’s habitat. If I can view one on the hunt, I can provide even greater detail,” Orren said.

“Finding one on the hunt might be a problem if you’re the one being hunted,” Sabine argued.

“True enough, but we have other means to gather and preserve the information we seek. Now, how about it, are you up for the task?” Orren asked.

“Maybe, as long as you’re not expecting me to fight whatever bog creature you’re supposed to be looking for. I’ll do it on one condition, I need you to provide me with one of your compendiums,” Sabine offered.

Having basic information on the threats in Golgotia, other than the Golgotians themselves, would be a big benefit in the future. Orren's destination wasn’t too far out of her way. From the way he described things, Orren wasn’t actually looking for the monster, just scouting the area a bit. If things got dangerous, Sabine wasn’t sure if she could outrun a bog creature, but she was certain that she could outrun Orren, which amounted to the same thing.

“We have a deal, you escort me safely to the bog, and you get to keep the contents of my purse and another twenty silver when we meet back in Hammerhead’s tavern. In addition, you get a copy of the compendium. You can have the one I just showed you,” Orren agreed.

“Not this compendium, I want one on Golgotia,” Sabine said, handing the thin book back to Orren.

“I don’t have anything like that on me, I’m afraid to say. If you’re going to be in this area for a while, I can send word home and have them forward me a copy. Please understand that the information on Golgotia may be sparse, not too many of our family are welcomed in those lands, despite the wonderful services we offer,” Orren said.

“That will work, I think I’ll be here for at least a little bit,” Sabine said. It turned out that Orren wasn’t exactly up for more travel this night, unlike Sabine, he would need some sleep before they continued their journey. She did manage to convince him to move another mile or so before making camp, Orren knew enough from his work that camping near a pair of corpses in the wild was practically an invitation for getting attacked by scavengers.