章 37: Awakened
Stale sweat.
That was what caused Rackshar to rouse from his slumber. The rank smell that bodies produce from being pressed together for weeks on end. It was powerful enough to wake the dead, and so Rackshar awoke.
He opened his eyes to see the wooden slats of a ceiling and feeling a gentle swaying motion with a rough bumping to accompany it. Rackshar looked to the side and saw several humanoids packed together, tied up like animals. He slowly sat up on the wooden bench he had been using as a bed.
His vision swam for a moment as he came upright, Rackshar knew that he would probably have a splitting headache if he could feel anything at all. Now that his soul had been damaged again, Rackshar had even less synchronization with his body. He wondered if he would go color blind if this kept up.
Rackshar's vision cleared slowly, and he got a good look at his traveling companions. A mix of annoyance and disdain showed on his face as he realized who they were.
'Slaves.'
As the thought crossed his mind, Rackshar looked around the slave wagon he was currently sitting in. He took in the scenery drifting past the bars that made up the sides and realized that they were still in the forest.
'Couldn't have been more than a day or two.' He thought grimly.
A gravelly voice grated Rackshar out of his thoughts.
"Look whose finally awake."
Rackshar turned to look at the owner of the voice who was currently riding on a horse next to the wagon.
"Thought that you might never wake up with those injuries of yours." The rider continued, nodding toward Rackshar's arm and chest.
Following his motion Rackshar looked down and was surprised to notice that his wounds had all been cleaned and bandaged. He also noticed that he was not chained together as the rest of the slaves were.
Once again looking the rider over, Rackshar decided that he would risk a bit to see where he stood.
"Looks like you didn't walk away from the Elder Athonex unscathed either."
The rider glanced down his long beard at his tree stump of an arm currently in a sling, with his one good eye. His other eye was covered by a bandage that wrapped up half his head. Dark brown hair puffed out of the bandages at odd angles giving him a comical look.
The rider glanced up from his injuries to meet Rackshar's gaze a slight smirk appearing on his lips.
"Indeed, but the tradeoff was worth it."
Rackshar's eyes lit up.
"You finished off that bastard?" He asked, standing up and grabbing the bars.
"It was a hard fight, but the damage you and your team did to it made it a simple waiting game. After an hour or so of fighting the brute collapsed on its own."
'Team?' Rackshar wondered for a second, but quickly discarded the question as his natural greed overcame his curiosity as to what the human meant by 'team'.
"Well then as payment give me the god core."
The rider coughed uncomfortably, "Well, that would be a bit of a problem. You see, we did lose several Hunters in the process of holding it off. Plus, the destruction it caused when you lead it into our caravan is quite costly, and one of our most expensive slaves got away in the chaos. Then you also have to take into account that we saved your life, which took several rare herbs. All together I would say we just call it even."
Rackshar grit his teeth in frustration. Not wanting to press his hand too far, seeing as it didn't seem like the rider was hostile to him.
Worried about the awkward silence and wanting to change the subject off of the god core's ownership, the rider quickly asked. "We actually just broke camp a few hours ago. We had to rest for two days to recover after the battle. Do you know the status of the rest of your team? We can still make a rescue trip if they can be saved."
Rackshar finally put the pieces together.
He sneered in his mind 'This human think's that I'm part of some human team like he is and that my team were the ones who did all the damage to the Elder Athonex. Of course, he would think it impossible for a single weak human to do such a thing.'
"The rest of my team died." Rackshar said bluntly, his face showing no fluctuation.
"I'm sorry for your loss. What happened exactly, how did you end up fighting that beast?"
Rackshar paused for a moment. Being a Dragon at the top of the food chain he was unused to deception. Even his lies to Kaleb had been rather weak and only worked because the situation was so new to Kaleb, he couldn't tell how illogical Rackshar's lies were.
So, Rackshar quickly made the easiest decision he could. He told the truth.
"Well, I was part of a team of Hunters on a mission to the Mountain Tomb. Once we were inside things didn't go well for us and we had to retreat after we lost a few men. Since we had lost a portion of our force and almost all of us were injured, we decided to abandon the mission and head back to the Bazaar. The only problem is, one of those that died in the Tomb was our guide."
Rackshar told his story with a monotone voice, his face as still as stone. The man assumed that this almost disturbing lack of emotion was due to the trauma of losing his whole team and being so severely injured all in a short period.
"It was when we were wandering through the forest that we mistakenly came across the Athonex's territory. The young ones weren't a problem but dealing with them caused the Elder to come out. We fought it for as long as we could, but in the end, I was the only one left."
Rackshar went silent as he finished his tale, staring intently at the man in order to gauge his reaction.
The man looked away, unable to meet the intense eyes as the man in front of him as he finished the story of how he lost his friends.
"I'm sorry to hear that." The rider told him, slightly emotional from the tragedy of it all. "But don't worry, we're on our way to the Bazaar, and you can stay with us till there. Now let's get you out from among those slaves and put you in a more comfortable cart."
He rode to the back of the wagon and began fiddling with the lock. A thought popped into the rider's head, and he quickly met Rackshar's gaze again. "I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself, names Eraldu. What's yours?"
The corner of Rackshar's lips curled upward ever so slightly. "Rackshar." He said, his voice almost a purr.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット