Perilous; Part 1

Chapter 1

"UGH!!" I thudded against the cobblestone wall, the massive form of my aggressor loomed over me as stones fell from the wall.
"Bit angry eh?" Quickly I chucked one of the loose stones at his face. He barely seemed phased by it, but it did succeed in making him angrier. "I'll rip yeur arms off ye little Bastard" He growled as he grabbed a large club.

I began my sprint, rushing through the alleyways, dodging people. A loud whistle came from behind me, the large Orc man was rushing through as well, crushing people who didn't move out of his way.
Some of the people moved out of the way, others got up and began running with him, whether they did out of hatred for me, respect or fear for him, I don't think I'd ever know, something I was alright with.
"Ankorh, Sem Yill!" I yelled, still sprinting through the alley.

Suddenly, a quiet hum of beating wings funneled over the top of the alleyway. But it wasn't one pair of wings creating the hum, instead hundreds, if not thousands of butterflies and moths appeared, blotting out a large part of the bright sky above.
"Irkun!" As I snapped my fingers the mass of insects descended, grabbing and lifting some of the people, as well as the Orc who was chasing me.

Angry and panicked yells and screams came from the mass of people being carried by butterflies and moths.
"And with this I say, Vdena Marqi-Naj!" I turned, running into the forest.
"YE CAN'T RUN FOREVER BILL, I'LL FIND YE, AND WHEN I DO-" The screams of everyone being carried by the butterflies suddenly tripled, loud screams enough to be heard by the next town over echoed through the winds.

I shook my head, "I ain't your prey Ravgh." whispering and muttering to myself I wandered through the swampland, finding the markers Olivia and I had set so we wouldn't lose our camp.

"LIV!!" I yelled as I stopped by a large clearing.

From out of the underbrush, a tall dark woman, wearing red roses in her hair, a green shirt and jacket, and thick, mucky brown pants.
A smile crept upon her darkly furred face, "Hey Bill."
I jumped down from the log I'd perched on, landing in the clearing, "Got anything interesting?" I asked.

Together we waded through the last reeds and trees, finding our way to our campsite.
It wasn't anything special, built to blend into the environment around us.
"Not really, haven't learnt any new spells, at least not yet." Liv responded.

I sat down outside of our tent, and whistled.
A Rosy Maple moth flew towards me, landing on my jacket, "Hello Nahna."
I took her in my hand and the pink and yellow magic that made her body dissipated as I squeezed her, the energy trailed down into one of my pockets.

"On second thought Bill, I do have something interesting." Liv walked towards me, an envelope in her hand, "I almost forgot 'bout this, but an owl delivered this to us."
Liv's expression was one of curiosity and suspicion as she set the envelope on the box in front of us.
I shook my head, "Let's worry about it later, we don't have the time to worry about this."

I stood up and moved towards the brush.
"The owl that delivered it to us was a masked Blizzard Owl and was addressed directly to us."
Slowly I turned back towards Liv, "Does it say who addressed it?" Liv shook her head in response.
I moved back to the letter, swiftly opening it.

Inside was a small piece of folded paper, barely half the size of the envelope and a feather, one that belonged only to a masked blizzard owl, a species of owl native only to the Elgian mountains.
Unfolding the paper revealed neat cursive handwriting, the first part was in a language I didn't understand, however underneath it was common:

Jovh Xiv Pelidoz Nivi-Des, Andor Jhatvi, Sivisos BILL BON-JUAN, OLIVIA COTTONMOUTH.

Join me in the Endelrov tavern, it lies at the edge of the town you live near, I will introduce myself there. I expect you will be there the final night of Olrish, if you are not there by the end of Olrish, I will welcome myself into your campsite and explain what must be explained there.
- You mysterious sender, VN

I set the letter down on the table. "Do we trust this?" I asked without hesitation.
Liv read it quickly. "They know our names and last names, how to spell them and everything." Liv rubbed her head in worry, "They also know exactly where we are... Even we get lost trying to find this place."

I considered our options, "I say we trust it, it's not much information to go on, but it's enough for me to think they don't have ill intentions, it's not written in a malicious manner."
Liv looked at me, slack-jawed, "What are you talking about? You don't know how this was written!" She snapped at me.

I shrugged, "Worst case scenario we drank for no reason."
Liv grumbled for a while longer before disappearing into the swamp to relieve herself. Meanwhile, I continued to ponder who this 'VN' figure was and what they wanted to do with myself and Liv.
I snapped my fingers and my swarm of butterflies and moths suddenly appeared, they all rushed into the same pocket Nahna disappeared into.
You'd think that a legion of moths and butterflies would make your pockets quite full, but considering every single one of them, including Nahna, was just transmogrified sand grains with a little more magic to make them seem like more than they are, it really didn't do much.

Liv returned to camp heaving a very large, very dead, very cooked fish. "Found dinner!" She exclaimed, tired and sweaty.
I jumped to my feet and helped her drag it to cleaner ground before rolling it onto our dinner tarp, of which stank with the awful stench of previous meals.
Together we cleaned it, seared it and also descaled it.
After we did that I let Liv burn it a bit more before we removed all the organs we wouldn't and shouldn't eat, throwing it in a nearby pond, in which a group of ravenous piranhas did their job as clean up crew, eviscerating the bloody remains.

After an hour and a half we'd finished prepping the fish and we began to eat what we could. We stuffed ourselves full of the foul tasting fish that Liv complained that she could barely move once we finished our ravenous consumption of the now dead river fish.
"Ugh" I shivered, "We need food that tastes better than this crap" I hissed, kicking what remained of the carcass.
Liv burped loudly, "Agreed" she loathed.
Tired and now full, I heaved the remains to a body of water that was a good distance from our camp, tossing the fish into the swamp water.

I returned to the campsite to see Liv asleep in one of the beds, a book covering her face as soft snores emanated from her.
"Same thing, different day." Whispering, I climbed the tree, eventually piercing the canopy. I sat at the top of the tree until the sun had completely vanished beneath the horizon.
I slipped down the tree and took my place in the sleeping bag next to Liv, and slowly, I slipped into the dark abyss.