***
Later that evening we swiftly settled in for the night. Abigail's parents had already gone and to my utter betrayal Koda had chosen to sleep with Abigail.
Her room was about the size of my whole living room back at home. She even had her own television right by the bed. I had had to save up for months for one and even then it had to be second hand. This one seemed to be brand new.
"So," Abigail had turned around to face me without my notice. With her other hand she supported her head, and the other one was firmly wrapped around the dog. The poor thing had no idea of the world around him. Fast asleep he snored like a broken-down motorcycle.
"How'd you get here? Ooh! Did you move to the farm nearby? I heard someone was moving in. How cool!"
The questions had no end and by the time it was midnight we had gone through multiple topics of who-knows-what. The last thing I could remember of the night before passing out was how she showed me her terrifyingly wide collection of weapons.
"Oh, but wait!" She said full of excitement.
"This one's my favorite by far!" She told me and swung a meter long sword out of nowhere. "Yes, it's quite heavy, but in combat it can do a lot of damage!"
I watched her do some example swings through the air. The blade wasn't even close to me, but I had an unbeatable urge to bend down and cover my head when it swung my way. "That is so cool! Where do you use them?"
"I don't." She lowered the sword and frowned. Her cheerfulness seemed to be wearing off a little and all emotions were soon colored over by weariness. "But I know there's a scary cave up north. Seb goes there all the time. I'm going to go and explore it someday, too. Once I've built enough courage."
She yawned and slid the blade back under her bed, where she had hidden all the rest. She said her parents had allowed her to own a few swords, but they still didn't like to see them on display.
"It's actually better this way." She spoke. "It's more exciting. Like a secret that only I know. And now you do, too!"
The ever-looming bankruptcy that was going to face me soon had lit an uncomfortable fire under me. It affected me badly enough I couldn't sleep a wink that night. The first few days I spent in distress trying to find some peace, but when it never came, I sought other means.
Strangely enough it didn't take much begging for Abigail to lend me her sword and after rummaging a few hours around the farm one afternoon I found a rather passable pickaxe to go with it.
So, naturally. I spent the nights away, fighting strange creatures and collecting minerals. At daytime I carried all of it up and sold them to the local blacksmith who gladly took them in. Unfortunately, he turned out to be rather stingy about prices.
The mines were a cold and dark place, and my wardrobe wasn't nearly enough for any of it. I had gotten a little glowing ring from some half dead creature, which was amazing since I didn't have to hold a living fire everywhere I went.
Another night had fallen and with Abby's sword carefully tucked into the belt I bent over to collect more copper. The bag was already full of it. Wandering around the higher levels there wasn't much more than plain stone, which the blacksmith refused to pay for.
I'd have to dig deeper for the good stuff. And so, I tried. In just a few hours I managed to reach at least ten levels down with little to no creature's disturbance. Most of the ladders were plain in sight so the quest was faster than usual.
The lower I reached the more life began to bloom. The walls grew mossy and strange vines hung their leaves down from the ceiling. A bit lower down was when there began to appear more amethysts and crystals. I even found a jade under some bigger formations.
And still again there was nothing to fight.
I was more annoyed than relieved. Where was all the excitement? The rush? Why had they all gone hiding? Had they learned already to keep their distance? What a pity.
An hour or so went by and still the monsters managed to slip out of my view. It wasn't until I found a wall covered in slime and goo that I realized there might be another reason for their absence.
After all, wasn't the scariest thing in a forest silence. Maybe I wasn't as alone as I thought I was.
Something had been killed here. I knew exactly what. Usually, the caves were riddled with living slimes, and they were rather fun to kill. But who, or rather what had done this one's end?
The answer came, or rather ran to me faster than I expected. Hearing the impending steps, I rushed to my sword and just in time managed to pull it out to block whatever was about to hit me.
Clank!
The sword hit something metallic and solid. It had to be some kind of weapon. I hadn't expected the creature to have intelligence, as none of the others seemed to have, and so the fact that it was armed was a shock.
The slimes had been easy prey, this one was actually dangerous.
I had shut my eyes for the impact. To yet another shock, when I quickly opened them to brace myself for another attack, I found myself staring right into a pair of dark eyes. Human eyes.
"Who are you?" He pulled the weapon off and thoughtlessly hung it back onto his belt. Surprisingly, he had come here with just a rusty axe and a bag.
So, he had been 'the monster' all along. I had never expected any company, from what I had heard from Abigail I thought all the townspeople were afraid of this place. But there the boy stood with an annoyed look on his face. Hands firmly folded, waiting for my answer.
I, too, buckled the sword away and decided to roll up my sleeves for good measure. "Why?"
The boy was fairly young. Not exactly a boy to be fair, he could easily be around my age if not even a bit older. He had tired eyes and a tall figure. The dark tones of his clothes blended him into the background, and I couldn't help but wonder if that was what he had been aiming for.
I thought I could possibly take him on a fight, depending on how skilled he actually was on combat. If he was a beginner, it wouldn't be too hard. His stance seemed a bit one sided and unbalanced, as well. It shouldn't be too hard.
"You're from the city, right?" That wasn't really a question from his end. I rather felt like he wanted me to get out of his sight. "Out of all places-"
"Wait, hold on, you tried to literally kill me and now you're going to judge me afterwards?" The nerve of this guy. It no longer mattered if I could take him down or not, I'd be happy to cause some damage at least if it was to come to that. "Who are you then, huh. Yea, if you really wanna do this, do it properly."
The cave grew silent as the boy bit his tongue. It was clear he tried to find something to say, but after a while he just leaned tiredly against the wall next to him and mumbled; "Sorry."
His raven hair grew messy barely hitting his shoulders. Every now and then he would swipe them away from his face only to have them fall back down again. He picked up some object that had fallen in the attack. It seemed like a detached bat wing, which was strange since there were no bats or wings for that matter in the cave.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked as he crammed it back into his bag. It was rather disgusting with the bone sticking out of it and everything.
"Oh, I found a nest few levels lower. Why?" His eyes held a certain disdain that I hated. He didn't trust me, which was to be expected. But he followed my every move like I was some sort of a threat wasn't too great.
But it wasn't totally wrong, though. How would he know if I wasn't dangerous? I had blocked his attack quite well, after all.
"You're staring."
What?
"I said, you're staring."
No, I wasn't. Was I? I turned my head down, ears blazing through my skull. I had dived too deep into my thoughts and blanked out. But I'll get out of this situation with grace. After all, he had been the one refusing to blink this entire time. I'd just dig myself a neat little hole to hide in for the rest of my life afterwards.
"Oh, sorry."
WHAT was that?! It was supposed to be sly! Clever, even. Something like, "you're the one to talk", or "ha! you'd only hope". Not THAT! How brutal could a person be? Does Pierre sell shovels?
"Fun meeting you." He exaggerated with sarcasm seeping through his teeth. "Sorry for the little, uhm, greeting. But I've gotta go. You can keep on doing, hm, whatever you were doing before... all this."
He moved towards the stairs and only then did I notice the marks stained onto the wall. It had been mixed in with the slime as well, I just hadn't seen it before.
"You're hurt." I tried, but he didn't stop.
"Ya, it happens, big whoop." He haltered determinedly onwards.
"No, you're like really bleeding." The blood stained the sleeve and slowly dripped onto the ground, and I worriedly watched him reach the ladder to climb it up.
"You're annoyingly stubborn, ya know that. This could get you killed."
He refused to listen.
"Hey, listen to me." I climbed after him. "You've got at least twenty ladders up to go. You won't make it. I've got some bandages and painkillers."
Standing by the next gateway up he eyed the ropes and then with a heavy sigh rolled the sleeve up from the wounded area. "There's not much that can be done to it, anyway."
I seeked out a useful boulder and motioned for him to sit down. I had packed a first aid kit with me, but it laid in the bottom of the bag under everything else, so I had to turn the whole thing over to reach it.
"Wow, you carried all that?" He wondered out loud while I tried to manically stop the bleeding.
"Can you not feel the cut?" With the little knowledge I had about cuts and their treatment I tried to press the area shut with the palm of my hand.
"Oh, it hurts. Alright."
"Does it?" I could feel my voice quiver just a little bit, the sight had started to look like slaughter, so I avoided looking at it and instead found his eyes.
Suddenly I realized how abhorrently inappropriate I had been. Here, holding a man's hand I've never met and staring into his eyes. I didn't even know his name. Did he have a girlfriend waiting for him to return home? Partner?
He thankfully hadn't noticed the obvious red that had smothered my face. He frowned dramatically and commented; "Well obviously, can you not see it?"
Hmm, alright. I let him hold the sleeve up while the blood slowly bled less and less. Still, it stained my hands up halfway to my elbows and I wondered if I could ever get the smell of it off my nose.
Next the wound would have to be cleaned, but even that wouldn't be too pretty. I had some water in a leaky bottle and a sanitizer for any bacteria.
"It's gonna hurt a bit more." I braced him and held the bottle ready.
"Relax, I'm not five." He sighed.
I shot him a nasty glare and poured the thing generously onto the cut. It did get most of the blood out of the way, but I did also get to hear how nasty the pain apparently was.
"You're gonna have to look after it." I said sternly staring into his eyes, again. It was more of a threat than an offering. While wrapping the wound in bandages I couldn't help but wonder, and I made sure to tone myself right when I asked; "How did you get it?"
"Get what? Ouch!"
"The cut, idiot."
"Oh, there was some skeleton-"
"What?" Distracted, I accidentally wrapped the arm way too tight and had to work myself back to loosen it a little to not completely cut the blood circulation.
"Yeah, nasty little sucker." He commented while slowly moving his fingers to check if I had accidentally broken some of them. "But it's dead and I'm not so it doesn't matter."
How low had he been to? Bats and skeletons.
"What's it like, ya know. Down there"
"Uuh, dangerous." He shook his head. Patting his knees a few times he stood up and pulled the bloody sleeve back down to cover - and mess up - the clean bandages. Once again ready to leave, he added; "For you."
I wanted to point out how - in fact - it was he here who was covered in blood and bruises, but he was quicker than me and disappeared without another word. I couldn't even run after him since that would've meant leaving all the goods behind.
It didn't take long to cram the bandages back into the bag and swipe the metals over them. I thought I had even climbed up in record time and yet, he was nowhere to be seen.
***