The Cost Of Family

Officials, Scoundrels, and Other Employers

Soon after Rikas had regained consciousness he decided it was time for us to leave. We only took a day to pack up our gear and few belongings before we were able to leave. Even though he talked about it earlier, we did not bring along the barmaid. Her name was Hilda, I only learned it as I waited while he said his goodbyes to her. Rikas rode his and I rode the horse of the man I killed, I didn't want the mare, but Rikas said I had to learn to ride anyways. He told me that even if that wasn't needed, I had to learn to take off the dead, whether it was an animal I killed for it's meat or a person in the midst of battle. "The spoils of war", unspoken rule among warriors and adventurers. I rode behind him as we left town at a slow walking pace. Rikas was clutching something in his hand, I couldn't see what it was at first. After a few minutes I watched him bring his hand close to his face for a few seconds, before bringing it down and dropping it into a saddlebag, it was a lock of orangish-brown hair.

We rode for a few hours, the small village disappearing in the distance. I kept wondering, why leave now. That guy was dead, an arrow in the head'll do that. I finally broke the silence, "Why did you decide to leave? He won't bother us anymore" He kept riding, not listening to me. I groaned and trotted (clumsily) up next to him before asking again, "Why did we leave? I thought we'd continue training here more. And what about her, seemed like you'd taken a liking to her."

Rikas pulled the reins on his horse, stopping while my horse continued a few feet before I reacted, stopping mine. He continued to look down before talking, "Aye, you still need training and I wish we could've stayed. But you'll learn that while being a ranger, you will make enemies. Sometimes they're out for revenge over a job gone wrong, old employers, or bounty hunters who take less than legitimate contracts. That man was a part of an old bandit gang, he's on his own, but I'd heard he went from robbery to kidnapping. He has been after me for a few years, though I've been ahead of him. I guess he was going to kill me until he saw me with Hilda. I'm not sure what he wanted to do with her, but..." he looked up at me before continuing, "I haven't been able to thank you yet. If you weren't there... I don't even want to think what he would've done to her." He gave a smile before spurring his horse and we continued. He later explained that even though that man was dead now, that there were still others possibly after him. Last thing he wanted after that was to risk putting the town in danger if we stayed. 

We traveled for a few days on the road, he told me there were some smaller farming villages nearby, but they didn't have anything worth us stopping there maybe besides provisions. We had camped each night and he showed me some survival skills he had yet to touch on when we were in that town. As he taught me and helped me all these years, I felt we had bonded a bit. Sure, mentor and apprentice, but he felt like an older brother or cousin maybe. Teaching and taking care of me, I wished I could've been that to Ida.

I had started to have nightmares similar to the ones I had soon after my family was taken from me. Foggier than before, but still just as frightening to me. But there were new images, shouting, and sounds I couldn't make out at first. Until a "thunk", and the face of the man I killed fell in front of me. The image of the face stayed, blood streaming from the wound where an arrow had been. Suddenly one of his eyes, stained red, started moving and looked directly at me as the head slowly turned to a skull as the flesh decomposed before my eyes. But not the eye, that eye stared at me the entire time.

I woke up with a start one night about a day out from a city we were heading to. I was in a cold sweat and panting as I awoke. As I calmed myself down, I looked around our campsite, Rikas sitting on the other side of our dying fire, back facing me.

"Having nightmares again?" He was drinking from his waterskin as he asked this, "Been a couple years now, thought you might've moved on since then."

I got up and sat next to him, "Well apologies for not forgetting about my murdered family." I said in a frustrated tone towards him.

He just sighed, "Sorry, but you know I meant nothing by it. Just assumed you were doing better since you had been sleeping peacefully for over a year now." He offered the waterskin to me.