Alone on Alternia

Chapter 2 - Running

Warning: attempted rape

Porrim drew the cloak around her, and checked to make sure the grub was safely tucked into her carrying sack. She moved quietly from stall to stall, weaving in and out of various low-blooded trolls. The highest blood color that could be seen in this part of town so far from the docks was honey-colored, no one higher than that was stupid or desperate enough to come here and practically hand themselves over to be mugged and murdered.

Porrim quietly selected several items and left the money with the sellertroll before slipping off to the next stall, her purchases clutched close to her body in a carrier basket, eyes always wary of pickpockets and street urchins that might try and lift her carrying sack or basket off of her. She kept her head down and her hood up, not wanting to reveal the extravagant garb of the keepers of the Mother Grub that she was still wearing.

She walked past an alley and heard a group of drunken rust-blooded trolls catcalling her. She growled and kept walking, never moving her eyes from her path. She moved onto the next stall and made her selections. She was about to put the money down in front of the sellertroll, but he stopped her with his wrinkled hand. "No, it's gonna cost you more than that doll." he rasped, a slimy grin on his face.

Porrim shuddered. "This is the price you're advertising it for, this is the price I'll pay." she said with as much confidence as she could muster.

"See, that's not how it works pretty lady. The price just went up." the rust blood leaned forwards, and Porrim could feel his breath hot on her face, and smell the stench of rotting food. "If you can't afford it, there are always...other ways to pay." he said with a meaningful glance downwards. Porrim bristled.

She threw the cloth she had been holding back down onto the stall. "I would never pay you like that, not in the lifetime of a fish troll." she spat.

He shrugged and leaned back nonchalantly. "Fine then, whatever floats your boat lady. But if you change your mind...well you know where to find me." he said with a wink.

Porrim shuddered and made her way quickly away from his stall and back out of the marketplace into the wild surrounding the town. She wanted to get away from that creepy troll as fast as she could, on top of the fact that it looked like it might rain soon and she needed to make a shelter.

Porrim huddled in the small lean-to made of broken trees as the storm raged around them. The flimsy wood of the lean-to didn't do much in ways of protection, and she was doing her best to shelter the grub from the wind and rain. 'Did I do the right thing? Is this really worth it?' she wondered as another piece of wood was flung at her back by the raging wind. Porrim glanced down at the miraculously sleeping bundle in her arms and smiled. 'For Kankri, yes.'

The storm carried on for at least another hour, if not more. When it was over it was all Porrim could do to somewhat rebuild their shoddy shelter before falling asleep holding Kankri in her arms. He wasn't the tiny grub she had left the cavern with only a few months ago; he had grown somewhat and looked like he was going to pupate in only a little longer. When she had found him he should've been much bigger already, but due to his lack of a lusus he had been severely malnourished. Now it wasn't much easier to feed him properly, but Porrim gave him almost all of the food she caught and bartered for in towns.

What seemed like only moments later to Porrim she was awoken by a noise nearby. She draped her cloak over Kankri to hide him before sitting up to assess the danger. She crawled out of the lean-to that was surprisingly still standing and looked around to see what had caused the sound. The rustling continued. Porrim followed it into the bushes, her small bone knife held at the ready. She heard a noise directly behind her and turned, immediately being impaled by a spear. She gasped, clutching her stomach. The spear was roughly pulled out and there was brutish laughter from all sides of her. Four rust-blooded trolls emerged from the foliage around her.

They smirked, and one of them spoke. "We heard you was disrespectin' Marcus earlier. Well, this is what happens to those who disrespect him."

"They get taken out!" one of them jumped forwards with excitement. A glare from the others shut him up and he stepped back into his former position.

"Now we're gonna be nice and leave you here to die instead of bringin' you back to have some fun with. Enjoy your death, you—" he glanced down to call her by the color of your blood and froze. "Shit, man, we killed a jadeblood! We're gonna get in so much trouble if anyone finds out, run!" the leader shouted, and the group scattered back to the town.

"Idiots." she grumbled. "If they had any common sense in their thinkpan the would've hid my body." she grinned mirthlessly. "Looks like this is it." she stumbled back to the lean-to to check on Kankri one last time. She could already feel the life leaving her as she looked on the sleeping grub. "Goodbye...Kankri..." Porrim closed her eyes, laying with one hand on the grub that she had, in the end, sacrificed her life for. She let out one last rattling breath, and she died.

Several hours later, she was awoken by the sound of a grub shrieking in her ear. Porrim sat up and groaned. "What the heck? Didn't I die?" she asked no one in particular, looking at her stomach. Her clothes were torn and bloodstained where she had been stabbed, but there was no cut. She reached out absentmindedly to stroke the hungry grub beside her and was shocked to see something strange out of the corner of her eye. She looked at her arm. "I'm...glowing?" she asked. Suddenly, it dawned on her. Something she had forgotten since she left the caverns not so long ago. "I'm a rainbow drinker! I forgot that when a Jadeblood dies by unnatural causes they come back as rainbow drinkers to continue their care of the Mother Grub!" she smacked a hand to her forehead. "How could I be so forgetful!"

Kankri nudged at her leg insistently and keened, a high, wailing note. Porrim's maternal instincts kicked in. "Alright, let's get you some food." and for the moment, she didn't think about the implications of being a rainbow drinker, only that she was still alive to take care of Kankri for another day.