A Close Call

As Arios clutched his sword in hand, he looked down at the puddle still pooling at his feet. The dark crimson liquid shimmered in the moonlight against the snow, as his vision became hazy. He looked up to his aggressor, but the darkness of the night, and the shadows of the trees concealed them. He reached down towards his pouch but felt no vials in the bag. The cold air whipped around him, as he exhaled, he saw the warm air leave his lips, and felt the crunch of hardened snow beneath his feet.
“Damn…” he said to himself, “Not the ending I wanted …”
As soon as he uttered these words he heard a noise in the darkness, and as he looked back up, there he saw two red shining beads for eyes peering out of the darkness. The creature growled low, as it stalked forward, and as Arios tried to lift his sword, his vision wavered once more.
As it crept into the light, Arios could see once more the visage of a young man, blood-drenched on his clothing.
“Poor thing, I do suppose I’ve played with my food long enough,” said the young man, “But it makes the kill all the sweeter you know…” he said still walking towards Arios. Once more Arios attempted to lift his sword, but his muscles wouldn’t respond, instead, he felt his fingers loosen their grip and his sword clanged to the ground.
“Well, stop talking about it and just do it then,” he said, spitting a gob of blood from his mouth. The young man took acceptance to his words and in a flash of movement, he was upon Arios. He grabbed him by the head and shoulder, aggressively, wrenching his head as far to the side as he could, trying to find the vein before sinking his teeth into him.
“Take some comfort in the knowledge that this is just natural selection at its finest, my good sir,” said the young man. And with that, he sunk his fangs into Arios’ neck and began to drain him of his blood. Only a moment after starting the young man wretched, pulling away from Arios, coughing while doing so.
“What is that awful taste?”, he asked before being met with a swift right-cross punch to the face.
“Anti-plague serum…useful for staving off diseases, leaves an awful taste in the bloodstream though,” said Arios. The young man reeled from the sudden strike, but quickly recollected himself, raising a hand and returning the blow to Arios, knocking him fifteen feet back into a tree. With a heavy thud, Arios landed, the snow that had collected in the tree’s branches fell beside him, as he slid to the ground. His back ached from the collision with the tree as he sat in the snow. Arios tried to lift himself but was only met with a sharp pain in his back, that halted his movement.
“Clever Hunter,” said the young man, “But a little bitterness is naught but a small grievance to me,” he said, beginning to make his way back over to Arios, who sat on the ground, prone, and unable to move.
Arios’ mind raced with thoughts, he needed a plan, a potion…something. But before he could finish his line of thought, he once more felt the hands of his aggressor upon him, lifting him, as if he were weightless, from the ground.
As the young man stood there, holding Arios aloft with one arm, he saw as he raised his other hand, his fingernails turning into long sharp claws. He thought of Tobias, Nahk, Bram, and all the others, he did all he could and now all there was to do was accept his fate. As he locked eyes with the young man, he mentally prepared himself for what would come next.
Suddenly a splash of cold speckles landed on his face, as it collided with the back of the young man's head. The aggressor took a moment to register what had just happened before turning back to the direction from which the snowball had been thrown. Standing there, with hair as white as the snow, his long sword, engraved with runes at his side, was Tobias.
“Right then, I’ll be needing for you to let him go,” said Tobias
The young man began to chuckle, which then turned into a giggle, which then erupted into loud and haughty laughter. After a moment of this, he then turned to Tobias, wiping away false tears.
“Well, this is rich, looks I’ve snagged two for the price of one,” he said as he looked to Arios, before dropping him and in a flurry of movement rushed towards Tobias. Before the creature could land its claws on him, Tobias had blocked the blow with his sword, looking at the young man with a sneer.
“You’ll not be taking any more of my children with you, you filthy second-rate parasite,” he said as he revealed his offhand wielding a silver dagger, as he plunged it into the creature. What followed was a shrill howl, as the creature disappeared in a mist. Tobias then ran to Arios’ side, “Are you alright my boy?” he asked.
“Besides the gash in my side, broken ribs, and more than likely a severe spinal injury…” he said in a jesting tone, “I’m just peachy”. As he finished speaking, he looked up to Tobias with a wry smile, but the look on Tobias’ face was like that of his mother when he burned his hand trying to use the forge when he was younger. He looked down, feeling ashamed, “I’ll be fine, where’s the vampire?” he asked.
“More than likely hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right time to strike,” said Tobias, reaching into his bag. He retrieved a small vial with a scarlet red liquid inside of it. “Drink this, it’ll help with the pain for a time, but we need to get you to a Cleric or an apothecary,”.
Just then from the branches of the tree adjacent to them, the vampire came flying down screeching. Arios saw the look on Tobias’ face as he smirked, holding his sword in a reverse grip. He spun around, narrowly avoiding the grasp of the creature, instead, grabbing it by the collar of its shirt, and driving his sword into its back. As the sword plunged through, it erupted through its chest, and the radiant energy emanated from the wound, the vampire screeched and howled as it slowly turned to cinders.
As Tobias stood with Arios, his arm thrown over his shoulder to help him walk, Tobias looked to the slowly dying creature. “Never mess with a wolf,” he said turning away and walking with Arios back towards the city, “they travel in packs”.
The following morning Arios awoke in his room, bandages covering the majority of his torso, merely to move was enough to incite pain. As he sat up, careful not to tear the stitches in his side, he looked over to the corner of the room when he saw movement in his periphery. Seated in the armchair was Bram, the dwarf was slouched and lightly snoring, Arios couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. Unfortunately, the swift intake of air caused his lungs to expand too quickly and left his side in more pain, causing him to wince loudly. It seemed this was enough to stir the dwarf as he quickly stood to his feet from the chair, looking over to Arios, visibly still groggy. As Arios pushed himself back against the bedframe to sit upright he looked over to Bram with a smile.
“It’s alright Bram, I’m just getting up”.
Bram looked at him with a dejected gaze, “Lad, you shouldn’t be moving at all. The apothecary was only able to mend some of your wounds, and give you something for your pain, the cleric won’t be here for another few days” he explained as he made his way over to the bedside.
“That would explain the lack of back pain” Arios chuckled, causing his side to convulse in pain once again, “OH, that smarts” he said wincing at the pain.
“I don’t understand what compelled you to go after that thing Arios,” said Bram, “2 weeks we’d been searching, and the second we find it you go off into the bloody night trying to fight a gods damned Vampire Spawn?” Bram stated, starting to sound aggravated in his tone. “We’d lost 4 of ours already, what would you’ve done had Tobias not found you?!” he began to raise his voice.
Arios looked down at the bed sheets, gripping them tightly in his hands, “I would’ve died,” he said quietly. Once more Arios felt like a failure, it’d been 2 months since his last bounty. An unfortunate series of events led a pack of Trailgaunts, to kill the couple he was meant to escort from the city to the distant town of Vestani.
“Yes! Exactly! Youd’ve died! How do you think that would’ve impacted the Guild? Or your friends? Or the rest of us who care about you!?” yelled Bram.
Arios simply sat there taking the lecture, letting Bram vent. Arios knew, that though Bram was being overly protective it was only because he cared. Bram would probably never see him as anything but the 16-year-old recruit who couldn’t fight worth a damn, like when he first arrived.
Then the door to the room opened, and Tobias strode in carrying Arios’ sword beside him.
“Never mind the fact that Tobias could’ve been injured trying to save your arse!” Bram continued, but Tobias held up a hand to cease the dwarfs yelling.
“Bram, I think the boys had a hard enough go of it as is” he stated calmly. Looking over to Arios and giving him a nod, Arios could barely look him in the eye after the night’s events. Tobias then gestured with his head for Bram to exit the room, “I think Nahk would like to know the boys awake, would you mind getting him brother?” he said. Bram simply nodded his head, and looking back at Arios once more, gave him a weak punch in the arm before leaving, “And don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again, you understand?” he said as he exited the room.
Arios simply looked to the bed sheets, trying to avoid eye contact with Tobias.
“Will you not look at me boy?” he said walking over and setting Arios’ sword against the bedside table, taking a seat next to him. Arios did all he could not to wear his emotions on his sleeve. Tobias sighed before sitting back in the chair, pulling his pipe from his coat as he did so.
“You did well last night,” he said, as he lit a match and stoked the herbs in his pipe, “If I had to give you a score, I’d say a solid six-out-of-ten,” he stated before chuckling to himself.
“Are you serious?” siad Arios, “I could barely hold my own, and to make it worse I almost got myself killed? We knew what it was, and despite that knowledge I was more concerned with catching it, rather than preparing properly for the fight!” he said as he started to raise his voice. But the sharp intake of air as he inhaled caused him to wince once more as the pain set in again. He then relaxed his shoulders and sat back against the headboard once more.
“Is that all?” asked Tobias, looking at him with a whimsical expression, “Lad, bounties come and go, lives are won and lost every day. If you fret over every poor soul who dies you’d be weeping all day” he said dryly. Arios looked up to him, finally meeting his gaze, he could see the expression on Tobias, a smile spread across his mouth as he gently placed a hand on Arios’ shoulder before continuing.
“I’ll not say don’t mourn, but to dwell on what cannot be changed is to waste time that could be spent helping others,” as he finished Arios looked over to his sword, then back at Tobias. The warm smile the kind words, it was as if his father said them. Arios smiled, before removing Tobias’ hand from his shoulder and swinging his feet out from the bed, “Well, I suppose your right” he stated as he lifted himself from the bed, stumbling as he did so. As Tobias reached out to help him, Arios waved him away, grabbing his sword as he did so.
“No rest for those who fight, right?” he said making his way to the door. Tobias stared on at him as he opened the door, and turned back to face him once more, “Thank you Tobias, you always know just what I need to hear,” he said before turning down the hall. And as Tobias sat there, contemplative, from down the hall he could hear a loud ruckus.
“LIL’ PUP! YOU’RE ALIVE!!!” joyously howled Nahk, followed by the sounds of protest and anguish from Arios.