The Legend of Vox Machina: The Curse of Zia Zircon

Ch 7: It Flew Along the Coast

Zia roamed the Shale Steps surrounding forest, knowing in her heart she made the right decision. Her friends might've been hurt by her peeling away from them so suddenly, but it was for the best.

Really, it was.

They didn't understand just how bad things could get in that village if she stepped foot in it. Mothers would hide their young children, and the more disobedient little shits would throw rocks at her to test if her stone skin would crumble to bits or crack like an egg. It would do neither of those things, but it would still hurt both her and their chances of finding anything out. Husbands and wives would take up their arms because she was cursed and they were scared and fear leads to anger-anger towards anything that looked like it could be a threat. Anything-Like her. These people had been through enough.

She didn't want to start any fights with her presence.

She wandered through the brush and skirted around the twisting roots of trees. She listened to the sounds of the forest as she strode through it, searching for any signs that a large creature could have been through this way. But she didn't take note of anything larger than a chittering squirrel.

She hopped up on the edge of a fallen oak, she fingered the breakage, it had rotted through. She straightened up, shaking her head. The tree fell naturally as far as she could tell. Zia slid down its moss covered bark as she eyed the mountainside in the distance through a gap in the tree line.

Monsters and Mountains went hand in hand. She rested the palm of her left hand on the hilt of her obsidian blade. She should know. Her amethyst eyes hardened. Memories rushed to the forefront of her mind, but she did her best to push them away as she walked in the other hills direction.

She didn't want to think about when she was a girl. All the times when the villagers would trap her in the mountainside mines when her papa went away on a trip. She didn't want to remember how they said she didn't belong in the village. How they were good people and that they didn't deserve to be plagued by her and her damned curse.

She leapt off the edge of a tall rock landing effortlessly on the ground underneath the small ledge. She adjusted her gloves, double checking that they were secure, as if that would do anything to squash her thoughts down and rid her of her memories of the past. Memories she wished she could forget.

She didn't-

There was someone behind her.

She drew her swords, body mirroring the blades in her grip as she spun around. She sliced downwards, gold sparks leapt between the two ores as her obsidian colored blades met the silver metal of Vax's daggers.

"Easy! Zia, Fuck!" Vax's arms strained with effort to keep her swords from slicing into him. "It's just me!"

He didn't have the strength to shove her off. The half elf's knees about to buckle from the force of her blow. Zia was stronger than him with her cursed strength. But as soon as it registered who she was about to slice Zia backed off.

"Could you have slashed any harder?" Vax inspected his daggers edge. An almost imperceptible chip in the metal. "Fucking Hell."

"It's your fault for sneaking up on me." Zia murmured, holstering her swords. She looked away lip curling. "...maybe you should get stronger daggers."

Vax's eyes narrowed. "Somehow I don't think my daggers are the problem."

"No?" Zia smiled.

"No. My daggers aren't weak." He stepped beside her brushing his shoulder against hers. "You're strength is just insane." He nodded in the direction she'd been heading. "C'mon, we need to head towards that fallen pine on the hill over there. Some village kids said some giant flying creature knocked it down."